News vs. Rumours: Weeding out the Lies

It seems that every week there is a new rumour spread on social media and every single time an absurd amount of people fall for the lies.

According to Twitter, Betty White has died at least five times over. This is clearly false and she lives soundly at 97-years-old. But, if we’d all accepted the rumours as truth, there would have already been five memorials for a living woman.

Often people are far too quick to jump to conclusions and take what others present as fact. I am naturally inquisitive or even suspicious, either way, it takes a bit more than a random Twitter user to convince me of anything. I need you to provide hardcore, credible FACTS. While I may believe something, I am always aware that there’s a possibility that the information is untrue and am therefore willing to do my own research because at least if I am wrong the information was gathered by myself.

As I recognize that everyone holds some level of bias, I am careful on social media to not take everything people say too seriously because they have their own agenda. This is especially important nowadays as the role of “influencers” becomes greater. With all the sponsored content and brand deals, it is necessary to determine what is just propaganda.

When reading stories and rumours on social media, I check my biases to ensure they are not clouding my judgement. I also consider the date and source. As much as possible I read the entire story as headlines are known to be complete clickbait in an effort to attract attention. Usually, when a story is released someone will comment something disputing the claims of the post which always serves as a reminder to me that I cannot just take what others tell me at face value.