If you spend any amount of time on social media, you’ll see false news stories. They range from minor inconsistencies or misconstrued details to giant hoaxes and pages full of deliberate lies. It can be very frustrating to sort fact from fiction. Sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s true. Despite this, users share these fake stories, never questioning their sources.
The New News Platform
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, said in a post that misinformation was a problem they’d been working on “for a long time.” Many critics suggest that it was such fake news stories that swayed the presidential election, though Zuckerberg has said that such stories couldn’t have influenced voters. Regardless, misinformation is on the forefront not only because it is a widespread issue, but because people believe most of what they read.
Deciphering real news sources from fake ones is nearly impossible for some people, especially if the news story is telling them what they want to hear. Another reason is the sheer volume of content. Thousands of different sites can report different versions of the same occurrence – and they do. People are bombarded by the false information and assume, since it’s everywhere, that it must be true.
What exacerbates this issue is the click-bate nature of social media. People don’t read entire posts; they click on the link and read just long enough to consume the first few lines. By then, it’s gospel. In fact, most of them don’t read it at all. A study by Columbia University actually showed that 59 percent of the links on social media have never been clicked. This means 6 out of 10 Americans will spread the article based on the headline alone.
One of the co-authors of the study, Arnaud Legout, said this phenomenon is simply a factor of the modern information age. As more knowledge becomes available to us, we become more reliant on the “short version” of things. “People form an opinion based on a summary, or a summary of summaries” said Mr. Legout, “without making the effort to go deeper.”
It’s Not Social Media’s Fault
It’s easy to blame social media for this state, but we are all to blame. Our brains want streamlined, fast information. We’re also more likely to believe things our friends and families share. Once people decide to spend the extra minute sourcing out the source before hitting the share button, fake news will be a thing of the past.