Social Media News

It’s the end of the day. My children are in bed. My husband is in bed. I need someone to talk to. Where do I go? Facebook, of course! Some days, it’s the only real adult “conversation” that I have. And usually I learn way more than I would ever want to know. So what did I learn today? Well, one couple that I know celebrated their 39^th anniversary (Congratulations!); another friend had a water heater to burst while they were gone. When they returned she found years of pictures and scrapbooks ruined (So sorry!). I also learned that tickets for a concert at a local venue went on sale today and a new season of Doctor Who premieres August 23 on BBC America. I was saddened to see that a friend had shared a link to an article indicating the Billy Graham was in critical condition and the family was asking for prayer, however, after clicking on the link, the article was actually from March of this year. Another article from a conservative news site pushed the headline that Chris McDaniel supporters were denied access to voter polls. The article went on to allude to the fact that the primary was filled with fraud.

So how do you know what to believe? Is it possible to obtain credible information on sites like Facebook? Of course it is. It is credible and true that my friends have been married for 39 years and that my other friend lost many sacred things to water damage. It is also true that tickets went on sale and Doctor Who will premiere in August. Where we have to be very careful is in looking at “news” articles that our friends like and share. While the article about Billy Graham was true, it was an outdated article. The facts of the article, while true in March, were inaccurate in June. But if I had not looked further into the article, not just the headline, I would have never noticed the date.

The same holds true for the Chris McDaniel article. I read the entire article. But then I took it a step further and visited some other news sources. Only one other news outlet reported on the results. While many of the facts were the same, the language was more objective than subjective and painted a clearer picture of what was actually going on with the situation as a whole.

So back to my question: can you obtain credible information on social media sites? The answer is yes…and no. As with any other site or source, it’s up to you to fact check the credibility!

Social media--positive or negative?

My go to social media sites are Facebook and Pinterest. I use down time to browse these sites just to find out what my friends are interested in and what is trending. I don't usually watch the news or read the newspaper, so I visit news sites, both local and national, frequently to stay current on what is going on in the world.
I admit that I often rely on Facebook to keep me abreast of what's going on because I can scroll my news feed and find plenty of stories and articles that are being shared. I don't read news sites daily, so if it's not being shared or posted, then there is a good possibility I will miss it. I used to be guilty of believing and sharing every interesting or "flavorful" article that I saw. I quickly realized that I needed to be more careful about what I shared; just because it's in print doesn't mean it's reliable. I tend to do a little more background and fact checking on my own these days. I feel like the accountability that is placed on us as consumers to be more critical thinkers is a positive influence that comes from this new media. For me personally, the positive aspect is that I'm more aware because the information is only a click away.
On the other hand, one negative that I see is that there can be a limit to the information that you expose yourself to. What I mean by this is that most of my friends on Facebook are friends because we are similar. We have similar beliefs and interests, so when they comment on articles or share them I am usually in agreement with the information they are posting. The negative aspect of that is that it would be very easy to hide yourself in "like mindedness" and never really seek out, to understand or form conversations with, those who have different ideas.