Be Careful. Not Everything That You Read Online Is True

Several years ago, when I began to utilize social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, I read a few books on the subject.  Since the books were primarily written from a business perspective and were offering advice to those who would be using these forms of communication for professional purposes it was understandable that they all made a point of providing a number of cautions.

One of the cautions that I encountered numerous times had to do with information, in general, that is found on the internet.  The basic caution is fairly simple and most everyone knows it and yet it is still easy to get fooled. 

The caution is this:  Not everything that you read online is true.

I know, this is simple and obvious and everyone will tell you they know it is true, however, I have friends online who have gotten hoodwinked.

Remember that some people make it their business to create false information.  They know it’s false, in fact, that’s the point.  They want to see if they can trick others.  In some cases people intentionally format the false information in such a way that it appears to have come from a reliable source, such as a news organization.  There are people who do this type of thing to see if they can stir up posts that could possibly go viral.  It’s what they do for fun.  It’s nothing new.  In fact, it’s very old.  It’s called: starting rumors.  It’s just that now we have the capacity for digital rumors.  And because of the nature of digital information they can spread even more quickly.

I’m bringing this up because over the past couple of months I have seen a few friends on Facebook “share” posts that I’m sure they believed were true.  Some of the original posts that were then “shared” by my friends even appeared to come from legitimate sources and been researched.

I’ve seen a few people “share,” in a serious and sincere way, information that came from comedy websites that specialize in parodies of current news stories.  My friends believed that they were providing useful information that would raise serious concerns about this issue or that issue and, in fact, what they were sharing was completely untrue and had been created as a comic parody.

So, I’m just reminding us all of something that we know but I thought it might be helpful think about, once again…

Not everything that you read online is true.

Before sharing the posts of others—especially if it is information that seems quite extraordinary—it’s probably a good idea to check it out a little further.

Okay, that’s my public service announcement for today.