Studies show that more than 60 percent of Americans have come across fake news on the internet. These days, there is more fake news than real news.
Misinformed and uneducated people make claims on situations they hardly know anything about. A lot of the times these claims aren’t true or come from misinformed sources. This causes many people to also be misinformed about current events.
Junior Laniya Glasgow said, “I’ve seen so many different variations of things on social media. It’s the same topics, just different villains and victims. I’ve seen so many posts making Israel the victim, and I’ve seen a lot of posts making Palestine the victim. I don’t even know who to believe anymore.”
Some articles have legitimate topics, but are written by biased authors who are more likely to exaggerate and have misinformation. All of these news articles, posts, and tweets have the ability to change the way people think and the opinions they have.
If they see articles on all of the deaths in Palestine, they will perceive Palestine as the victims, but if they see Israel being bombed and people dying, they will think Israel is the victim.
If there is a lot of fake news, how do we know what’s real and what’s not?
There are many ways to identify misinformation. Making sure your article is credible is the first step. Look for links, citations, or authors’ names. If you are looking at an Instagram post or a Tweet, make sure you research the information to ensure you are getting all the right information and to educate yourself on the topic.
Social media has a lot of misinformation, and if you have the wrong information, you will look incompetent while trying to argue your side with another individual. Being correctly educated on a topic is really important because it helps spread awareness on the right side of a cause.
