This was originally posted back during the elections, but at the encouragement of Adrienne over at The Mommy Mess and Laurie over at Lulu and Daisy, I’m pulling it back up for TMM’s “Going Green” initiative.
In addition to what’s below, I’d also like to add a couple of other things.
- There is no funny video of you doing unscrupulous things. It’s a virus and you’ll regret being so curious and vain
- “Liking” that picture of the dog/kid/old person is also a scam created by a marketing “genius” who is looking to increase traffic to his page. Once he’s gotten his one million likes, he’s not giving the kid a dog, he’s changing it back to the original name of “Dialing for Dollars”
- Bill Gates is not giving you $5,000 when you “like” his post
And now on to the rest of the show.
Before you get excited, this is NOT a post that is looking for or encouraging political bashing. So if you plan on getting busy in the comment section posting nasty stuff (not Janet Jackson nasty but political nasty. JJ nasty is perfectly acceptable), you’ll be asked to leave. You’ve been warned.
What it IS is a post about the crazy crap people are spewing without checking to see if it’s even remotely true. Social media is like the world’s worst game of
All for You (Janet Jackson song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)ent again.
Telephone. Remember that game? We played it a lot in theatre to help us with our enunciation and to work on speaking clearly. One person picks a sentence, whispers it into the ear of the next person and then that person is supposed to whisper the same sentence in the next person’s ear and so on. The goal is that by the time it gets back to the original person, it was the same sentence.
This never happened. That sentence was so jacked up by the time it got to the end that it wasn’t even remotely close to what it started as.
Elections + social media = Telephone on steroids
We are ONE week away from the big day… election day. Many have already voted but that hasn’t eased up the stream of bantering back and forth between parties and along with that bantering, is a lot of bad information.
Case in point – the title of this post. M has said to me more than once that Romney wants to get rid of abortion, birth control and tampons.
Uhm… where did you hear that? She never could answer that one. While I was very proud of her for taking a stand and voicing her opinions, I cautioned her to double-check her facts before using this particular argument again.
I explained to her that while Romney may be against abortion and that Ryan may have indicated that he was against birth control, I highly doubted that either would take a strong, political stance against feminine hygiene products. I mean, we’re all against bad cramps, wings and commercials showing happy women dressed all in white, but a political platform? Hardly.
It’s easy to read something and get so excited that you have to hit that “share” or “comment” button but before you do, take one second and make sure what you’re getting ready to repeat has some resemblance of truth. What adds to the challenge is that it’s hard to find a source that reports honest and accurate information. There was a time that people existed who were called journalists. The only thing these people held more firmly than their pen was the truth. You could get honest, unbiased reporting – not anymore. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve headed over to Snopes.com to make sure something was true before I reposted it. I’ve goofed a couple of times and posted erroneous stuff… not anymore.
Snopes.com is your friend. Live it. Learn it. Love it. And while you’re double checking the information, head to dictionary.com to make sure your spelling is correct. Because the only thing worse than bad information is bad information spelled incorrectly.
And finally, breathe easy knowing that in a week it will all be over and life will go back to normal and all these political debates will go away.
Yes – you should check that last line on Snopes.com before you believe it.
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How perfectly marvelous of a post, which I, of course, had to tweet.
Arminda recently posted..Shipwrecked! at Triad Stage
Thank you my dear!! I loved this one, too. The title alone was almost enough to carry the post by itself…
This is a great post. I don’t care who anyone votes for but I do hope that everyone does vote. Our STRUGGLING nation DEPENDS on US!! Let’s put the US back in U.S.A.
You’re correct. As my 9th grade social studies teacher taught us – if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. And lord knows that I don’t want my right to complain to go away
And thank you again for a well thought out blog. I am also a believer in research and Snopes. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve used that word. I’m all for opinions, just not when its misrepresented as news. I can totally respect your opinion even if its different than mine, when its an opinion and not some bogus information. Thank God its over in a week
This ~~> Thank God its over in a week < ~~ If any of us think it’s going to be over next Tuesday, we probably also think that taxes aren’t going to be raised.
Some of my relatives are going to be quite happy that it is over because they will stop receiving emails from me lambasting them for acting like mindless sheeple who are unable or unwilling to check their facts.
Josh recently posted..All I Could Hear Was Her Screaming ‘More!’
You? Making sure that people have their facts straight? Why, that would make you one of the reliable sources – are you ready for that?
OMG…I totally missed this post in October. I do think that this needs to be run again, but with something about facebook privacy. Those posts are driving me crazy. I always post a comment that says, “Have you checked snopes?” Totally agree on the political front, though. Better late than never to the party!
Laurie Tester recently posted..Weekend Recap
I think you need to give up Facebook more often.. you are much more productive
And… thanks to you, I am going to make this my first “going green” post over at The Mommy Mess tomorrow because I loved this post and it deserves a little more light! Thanks!!
Kristen Daukas recently posted..I Must Have Loved It Enough to Take a Picture #iPPP
Politics and social media do nothing but prove to me that humanity has lost all class. And #3 up at the top? SO funny! I saw that last week, and I was like, “really?” Bill gates is sitting somewhere laughing about all the dummies!
Adrienne recently posted..Going Green-Link Up Your Recycled Posts!
Lost it’s class AND sense. I’m constantly amazed at the cajones people have on social media that they would never have in real life.
Kristen Daukas recently posted..Dealing with the Freshman Blues
Great post!!! All so true…and the sad part is now fast forward to today- not much has changed in the political arena. Sigh. Glad to find out about this site Snopes.com for seeking the TRUTH. Not much to trust in social media…
So nice to meet you!! Visiting from Adrienne’s Going Green link up.
Chris Carter recently posted..One Note Short…
Thanks, Chris! Well you know… if it’s on the internet, then it’s true. I’ve gotten to the point where so many of the posts, I just respond simply with “Snopes”. Check your facts, friends.
Snopes really is your friend. I have to remind my mother in law of this on facebook at least once a week. It is exhausting.
I saw at least two people repost one of those “Bill Gates is giving me $5000″ posts this week. *headdesk*
Tracie recently posted..Thoughts, Questions, And Monday Mornings
The crazier it sounds, the more you can guarantee you’ll find it on Snopes. The one before Gates was the one about ATM’s and entering your pin number backwards to alert police. Really?! We can’t get banks to be open on Saturdays, you think they’ll invest that kind of money in technology for a once in a blue moon occurrence?