In today’s American society, there are a number of sources of information surfacing on the internet. You can find information for just about anything. However, one must be critical of the information being presented and where it comes from. Many youth are looking to the news, youtube, wikipedia, and facebook for their information. Failing to check their sources. I also find that many youth don’t even care where the source of information comes from, as long as it makes sense. With all the information floating around on the internet, I think that it is important to fact check in order to avoid being mislead. Furthermore, fact checking is needed if you want to enter into a debate online.
I for one like to fact check my ideas before posting online. When I speak my thoughts I like for them to be a source of knowledge to my peers. There has been times I have watched something on social media or youtube that made sense to me. Instead of posting it, I did further research before officially accepting the information presented. In some cases the information was accurate and in other cases there was little or no evidence to support their views.
For example, the following is a post linked to an article I saw on facebook with the headline “Two White Men Doused With Gasoline, Set On FIRE By Blacks – Media CENSORED (VIDEO).” The text above the video suggests that the incident is an attack by the Black Lives Matter protests. It was clear the poster was very upset because (s)he also said, “share if you’re angry as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore!”
However if you bothered clicking on the link, you would of saw that the incident had nothing to do with black lives matter protesters. In fact the was actually an altercation between two people, about a year ago.
If you jump on google you will find that court documents allege that the fight began with the co-worker throwing the first punch. Allegedly, the second man caught on fire due to him coming into contact with the first man who was in flames. Furthermore, this story was previously covered by Baltimore media and CNN.
As you can see, Social media is not always the best location to get accurate information. You must remember that many of these posters are looking to gain more followers and/or stir up emotion. They are banking on the fact that most people won’t actually click on the link or do further research.
jedoubles 