Choose news sources carefully
Matt Pearl
I’m struggling these days to teach folks in my life how social media contains a unique, irritating set of perils for the uninformed consumer.
It might therefore be fitting, I thought, to review a few of the finer points of sifting through the garbage that passes for news and factual information on Facebook:
If you see a news article posted and there are any words or phrases expressed entirely in all capital letters, you are reading something that is probably not 100 percent accurate. Examples: MIRACLE DIABETES CURE THAT THE FDA DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW. That was fake news we just read, and we could tell it by the urgent all caps look of it.
Additionally, if it’s an article, picture or video clip with a tag that states somebody doesn’t want you to see it, you’re looking at conservative/liberal/paranoid propaganda.
If the link you click to read a story has Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Barack Obama or any other major political figure in an unflattering photograph, or making a face, it’s probably an article that will take an outrageously antagonistic viewpoint.
When you see a link that urges you to click if you are not ashamed of Jesus, I want you to remember something important: Moses never clicked that link, but I’m pretty sure he got to heaven just fine.
The guy who has you pick a card on the screen and then he guesses it–or a half a dozen other tricks like that–uses math most of the time to come to universal conclusions, or he changes card choices from one round to the next.
If you get a friend request from an extremely attractive person who has no mutual friends with you, it’s a scam. Do not click.
Over on the right of your screen, you’ll sometimes see topics that are trending. Just because people think something is interesting doesn’t mean it’s actually important.
There are inherent risks in use of social media, but the worst of the digital information sites’ dangers are not only in the risk of people being deceived or misinformed.
The President of the United States is sticking with Twitter as his means to help you and me understand what he is thinking and doing. But there’s a lesson in social media usage that I learned by observing my friends and acquaintances misuse their online accounts, a lesson I would pass on to Mr. Trump if I could.
Social media gives us courage to write things we might have the wisdom not to say to another person’s face. The consequences seem less gravel a face-to-face confrontation is likely to start a fight, or even end a friendship. But posting requires less bravery, and far less self-restraint.
I have imagined at times how pressure-filled the life of the U.S. President must be. Facing the media regularly, with the cameras flashing, video rolling and questions being thrown at you from every direction–now that would take a great degree of courage.
But it’s what we have come to expect in the radio-television-Internet ages: Presidents have to address this nation by way of the media, and this same media is protected in its coverage of our leaders. This is a measure intended to hold our public servants accountable to the people, and to relieve the media from fear of persecution for seeking out the truth.
I guess if we’re talking about the media, Twitter counts. But the power to speak to millions with the push of a button is one that carries with it the expectation that the user’s words will be carefully chosen. I would continue to urge our leaders to use such a medium responsibly; and if worst comes to worst, you could talk to the press, like our Founding Fathers intended.
Matt Pearl owns and operates newspapers in King City, Albany, and Grant City.
