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I’ve had my fair share of moments where I’m scrolling through social media and come across a shared post from a friend or family member with “misleading information” written all over it, yet they believe it to be true so they’re arguing with someone else in the comments over it. This actually just happened a few days ago. One of my family members shared a politically charged image on Facebook and proceeded to get into an argument in the comments with someone over whether the information was true or false.
Interestingly enough, when I revisited my family member’s page yesterday to see if the post was still up (and if it was, how the argument had panned out), the image had a warning over it, labeling it as “False Information.”
I always try to make sure the people I care about know how to properly vet information they come across online before sharing it to their audience, but it’s hard to reinforce that when politics get involved. I reached out to the family member that shared that initial image and asked him why he didn’t look into it a little before posting. His answer was simply “I don’t like Bernie.”
I wasn’t about to try and convince him to change his political beliefs, but I felt the need to help him figure out why “I don’t like them” is not a good excuse to blindly share information about someone without checking to see if it’s credible. So what did I do? I took the politics out of it and put it into a different perspective for him. I asked him how he would feel if someone made a post claiming he was stealing from local businesses.
“I don’t though!” was his response.
I said “Right, but they don’t like you so they spread that post, and other people that don’t like you kept sharing it. That’s not fair to you, is it?”
I won’t walk you through the entire conversation I had with him but by the end of it, he realized why it’s important to not blindly share information he sees just because it backs up an idea that he already believes. Relating the situation to my family member on a more personal level helped in this situation, so next time I’m in a predicament where a friend or family member is sharing false or misleading information, I’ll probably try this same tactic.
