After taking a deep dive into media literacy, I know the importance of thinking be you share something. Although I have this great knowledge on how things might not be always as they seem online, others may not but it most definitely is my job to tell them the importance of sharing only real news.
There are different types of social media users. There are the lurkers who just check in but never post, the people who share and are active, and then there are the over sharers. These are often the people who do need a little extra help in the media literacy department. I find that these are the friends or followers who tend to just share whatever they agree with regardless of what is true.
To help guide them, I find it important to sit them down and make sure they realize what it means to spread fake news. Because of the world we live in today, more and more people are using social media platforms to get their news. Whether this is a good idea or not, we’ll never know but it is only worsened by having people share fake news.
With that in mind, I think everyone should read the article “The More We See Fake News, The Less Fake It Becomes” by Forbes. Just the title alone says it all. The more we give fake news stories the ability to be see, the more people will start to believe it. I love this article because it discusses exactly why I feel fake news can turn into real news. People are more likely to believe something when they’ve seen it over and over again and so if you share a fake news story and then your friend shares it too, someone that follows you might believe it and make it “fact” in their mind.
To the over sharers on Facebook, I would share this article with them. I think a lot of these people who may share fake stories do it unintentionally but if they do it intentionally, I think through education they may change their mind. I do not think anyone wants to have fake news stories become facts because of them so simply sharing an article like this with statistics that back up my beliefs may help the person who shares these stories to realize the damage they can create with just a simple share.
