The other day a friend expressed their
exasperation over all the litter that’s posted on facebook. I think I know what
they mean. Here lately I’ll scroll through a dozen posts before seeing a post
where a person is actually communicating. There’s also an endless stream of
memes with false information being shared. I’ll see a post “informing” me about
something and know immediately that it’s false and has usually been debunked
countless times before because I’ve already checked up on it. Usually the
veracity of a post can be checked in less than a minute. A lot of the time it
doesn’t even take 30 seconds. I could spend most of my time on facebook pointing
out false or useless information and false equivalencies that people are
sharing. Then there’s the never ending stream of Click Bait.
What do I mean by litter? I’ve already
provided some examples above but here are some more. EXAMPLES: News feeds are
full of them. See this sad-eyed child. Click to show that you love them. This
horribly scarred veteran needs to know that you care. Click and share this
post. If you love Jesus you’ll share this post. If you don’t you’re with the
devil. Picture of a sad puppy. I’ll bet that I won’t even get one share. I
support our nation! Click and share! They’re coming for your guns! Click and
share! Are you old enough to remember this? Click and share! Do you know what
this is? It’s a can opener! Click and share! What’s the answer to this riddle?
If you know—click and share! And with each click and share we give the data
cruncher’s vacuum a little more information about ourselves and our personal
lives.
What do I mean by useless information?
I’ll see a post telling me to watch out for a particular individual in regards
to a child abduction. A quick Less Than 30 second (LT30) check shows me that
the missing child is in Australia. Since I’m in the United States there really
isn’t a whole lot that my sharing this point will accomplish. The exception of
course would be if I had a lot of friends living in Australia.
What are false equivalencies? These
things are posted all day long; usually they’re about hot button items like LGBT
rights, gun control, religion, etc. Here’s an example: saying that a baker
refusing to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding is the same thing as a
Muslim-owned restaurant refusing to serve bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.
This is a false equivalence because the bakery offers the service of baking
wedding cakes to the public. The Muslim-owned restaurant has no duty to have
bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on their menu. Another example of false
equivalence comes from Trump’s Twitter feed, in which he accuses Hillary
Clinton of colluding with the Democratic Party to beat Bernie Sanders for the
nomination (as opposed to his collusion with the Russians). Oh, and guns: “cars
kill more people per year than guns, so let’s ban cars.”
Then there’s click bait. OMG so much
click bait. Click Bait is often a LT30
check. It’s possible to just hover the cursor over the originator of a post to
see who is sending it. For instance there’ll be a picture of a sad puppy with a
caption like “I’ll bet I won’t even get one share”. I’ll move the cursor over
the originator of the post and see that it’s a radio station. What they’re trying
to do is boost their traffic stats. The ones that really tighten my jaw is when
they use pictures of veterans, children, cancer patients, etc. to boost traffic
to their home page. In other words there isn’t any information going to the
person portrayed. One LT30 click can tell you if it’s legit.
How about boycotts? A post went through
about a hotel chain awhile back telling people to avoid doing business with
them because of a policy they had. The information was years old, had already
been addressed by the business and all the parties were satisfied. But the meme
keeps circulating. This one is also an LT30 check. The ones that are more difficult
to check are toxic posts about someone being, or some small business doing,
something despicable or things of this nature. Often they’re just people with
grudges trying to hurt someone. I will read someone saying that they shared
something because “better safe than sorry”. Okay let’s say someone accuses you
of being a thief and starts posting that people should watch their stuff around
you. Would you want that spread around or would you want people to check? This
kind of junk is just harmful gossip. (BTW Christians aren’t supposed to gossip.)
Political memes and news is a little
more difficult to check. It takes effort. Sometimes a lot of effort. The main
problem on this front is that people want to believe bad things about the
opposition even if reality doesn’t support their position. People will share
falsehoods simply because they don’t like something or someone. I’ll use
Hillary Clinton as the best example of a person who has endured decades of
falsehoods. One conspiracy theory and false accusation after another were
hurled her way. I spent years tracking all the stuff down. Nothing to them. I
would point out to people that what they shared as gospel simply wasn’t true
and then provide the source showing that it was a lie. The answer that I would
get back was well it’s kinda’ true and they would share it anyway. In other
words they shared a lie because that confirmed their belief that she was a “bad
person” and since she is a bad person it is okay to lie about her. I don’t like
President Trump but I won’t knowingly share incorrect information about him.
People say they want unbiased news but
they won’t accept the reality of what is being reported by what I’m going to
call mainstream media. For instance I don’t like what is being reported about
President Trump’s sex life any more than I liked what was reported about
President Clintons. But there you are. Their sex lives may have absolutely
nothing to do what how they conduct their business as President. But here we
are again. Unfortunately it is news whether we like it or not. It’s going to be
reported. When you go to a story and the site claims they’re news media, at
least check their posts and see if they do anything besides post memes! A lot
of these “people” are just troll factories.
So if you’re unsure what to believe come
back to normal. Check the major media outlets. They do get stuff wrong
occasionally but they usually correct their mistakes when they’re pointed out. Yes,
they have bias from left to right but what they’re reporting is true. The
actual event is there. How they report it may differ. The hyperbole of words
around the event or item is what’s different. In other words the Trump
Administration has had an unprecedented turnover in Presidential appointments.
The last I checked he’s had like a 40% turnover in staff. How is it portrayed?
The AP would be more likely to give you just the straight facts and leave it at
that. MSNBC in all probability will additionally tell you that that’s the highest
of any President, whereas Fox News might not cover it at all.
Who do I use? In not any particular order I use these news
outlets: AP, Reuters, Axois, ABC, BBC,
CBS, NBC (Not to be confused with MSNBC), Time, Wall Street Journal, Washington
Post, NPR, New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, CNN. There are a couple that I
get a kick out of like MSNBC and The Economist. They’re still fair in their
reporting.
Politifact, Snopes and Factcheck are
all good sources to check. If they don’t have the answer then you can go to
Mediabias. They will only check something out if the others don’t have it. You
can also go to Mediabias to find out how your news source is ranked from left
to right or anywhere in between. Keep in mind that extremist groups along with
the Russians will pump out information saying that these fact-checking sites
are biased and false. If you choose to go along with that assessment then you
are indeed lost. Seriously, if Infowars is any source of news for you, you will
absolutely believe anything.
I have biases. I tend to lean certain
ways about various topics. I believe that if one recognizes their biases
they’re better able to maintain objectivity. If you’re passing stuff without
thinking critically, you need to at least understand that’s what you’re being
manipulated to do. Our prejudices should not get in the way of the truth. Just
because it resonates with you and reinforces your opinions, doesn’t mean it’s
true. If things are going to get better in our nation we all need to be more
honest about our actions.
Facebook is starting to go the way of
email. 90% of email traffic on the internet is spam. At this point we don’t see
most of the junk. It’s filtered out. Only all the junk on facebook isn’t being
filtered out and it’s increasing. It is like writing graffiti on walls. This is
why we can’t have anything nice. Too many people are willing to corrupt it for
too many reasons.
So, if you believe in the First
Amendment, click and share this (copy and paste the url) with all of your
friends!
