Most readers of today’s articles, blog posts and social media posts are gullible. I can’t even count on my hands anymore the amount of fabricated stories I see on social media. I think to myself “What about this story makes it believable to the reader?” As an adolescent I got to experience lackluster press, reading behind my grandmother who is a fan of fabricated news. Reading tasteless tabloids such as the National Enquirer, prepared me for what I read today.
Back in the 90’s we didn’t have fake celebrity deaths, fake legal notices, social media and so forth. Celebrity gossip has always been around, but now the sources that we are supposed to trust most dish out the most mediocre information. Major news sources included and social media is the sharing platform. Once a story is shared there’s not only one person with misinformation, but thousands or maybe millions. This applies for mainly Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
How are we supposed to know when something isn’t true? That’s a tough one. I can say common sense, but that would be too vague of an answer. Although you may have common sense that doesn’t mean that you aren’t lazy. Research is a necessity.
People won’t buy your argument that something isn’t true or realistic until you basically stamp the facts across their foreheads. This generation is easy to persuade, but hard to convince. I can tell you that the world will be dark for three days and you’ll be persuaded to believe that. Some people won’t need proof to be convinced that this statement is true while others are smart enough to debate what you’re telling them .
People have countless reasons for why an article or a particular statement may be true to them. Most of the time if an article appeals to a person’s specific desire or rises to their satisfaction they are sold.
For example if there was a photoshopped tweet going around saying Beyonce saved half of China from an earthquake by giving a concert, I guarantee you there would be a handful of people who actually believe it. Simply because it is Beyonce and they’re a fan, it will have some validity to it.
“Way of thinking” can also lead to gullibility as well. Race is one of the many controversial topics in the nation that publications have taken full advantage of and where the readers of race related content can become the most gullible. This is a topic where you have people whose thoughts are all over the place. For example, if someone who is black reads an article about Donald Trump culture bashing blacks they are most likely going to at first believe the article until proven false. This simply can be because of the opinion they have of Trump already.
Writers are powerful whether they are credible or not. Most have an agenda, the agenda can appear positive or negative, but at the end of the day the information will be absorbed and someone is going to credit it.
Our issue as readers is that we take factors out of a post, publication, blog, or article and we sometimes adjust it and even if the information is not credible we make it believable to ourselves. We think that just because the information we are reading is coming from a well put-together website with an articulate author that everything has to be true. Well that’s far from right.
Just a pointer, do your RESEARCH! Always remember that this is a new age of technology and that information can easily be changed to fit your mind’s criteria.