Why You Should Not Believe What You Read/See on Social Media

If I research a subject online and find reliable sources providing information about it, and other reliable sources corroborate what I've found, then I go with it.

The alternative would be to visit the public library, and I could not be certain that anything I found there would be anymore reliable than what I found online. Lies and misinformation were present long before the internet.
 

Just as the main purpose of news channels on TV is to keep us tuning in, day after day, the main purpose of social media is to keep us coming back to read more (and add our own input, whether it is sane or not). It's a good point, to remember to take all the stuff on the internet with a grain of salt.

Salt? Oh,no! Salt is bad for us! And so is everything else we eat, drink, or breathe, and we can find proof of any kind of crazy idea if we look for it. (The "cotton causes cancer" is a good example.)

I try not to waste my time reading nonsense, but don't always succeed. And some of what we read is verifiable and even wise. We just have to be careful what we believe.
 
Sunny said:
We just have to be careful what we believe.
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This is unscientific and a little eerie. To me it suggests a variable standard of consideration based how comforting, familiar, or supportive-of-belief a statement is.

Exactly why the mob supported the Vatican in denouncing Galileo's theories which drove many other scientists into silence.

Common sense, lore, and scriptural interpretation "proved" that of course the Sun moves around the Earth.
 
I think I was about 12 or so, waaay before "social media", when Grandpa told me "Buckeye, don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see". A man ahead of his time?
 
dilettante said:
I think the moral is that you need to be well-informed or preferably experienced before you are in a position to judge advice.
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Not necessarily. I'm not well-informed or experienced about Myasthenia Gravis, a condition I'm currently researching. To learn more about this disease, I'm relying on medical resources such as the National Institute of Health, The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Cleveland Clinic, among others of equal standing to learn as much as I can about the disease. It matters not whether I am in a position to judge their material (or advice, as you call it) since it has already been heavily peer-reviewed and accepted in the medical community.
 
dilettante said:
I hope nobody is suggesting that corporate media and "public" (sponsored) media are somehow more trustworthy?
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The only thing leftist legacy media and its alt right counterparts have going for them over social media is that there’s usually a breadcrumb you can follow to find original source material regardless of how much they spin and distort the truth. It’s hit or miss with social media as to whether you can find the source.

The thing I do like about social media is the ability to engage in comment discussions. Sure, there are bots but they’re easy to spot.

All media is pretty much hot garbage. Use it as a starting point to trace to original sources.
 
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MACKTEXAS said:
Not necessarily. I'm not well-informed or experienced about Myasthenia Gravis, a condition I'm currently researching. To learn more about this disease, I'm relying on medical resources such as the National Institute of Health, The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Cleveland Clinic, among others of equal standing to learn as much as I can about the disease. It matters not whether I am in a position to judge their material (or advice, as you call it) since it has already been heavily peer-reviewed and accepted in the medical community.
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Exactly.

The moral is that you need corroborate your sources.
 
I know for a fact Google doesn't always give accurate information! I aske Google what kinds of music do parakeets like. They told me very soft and quiet. I then asked people in a Parakeet FB group what kinds of music their parakeets liked. It was not soft and quiet!! For one thing my birds liked Rock n Roll music and lots of stuff that was not soft. The people in that group said the same thing and many kinds of music, mostly NOT soft.
 

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