Eimear Hutchinson: Question the content you are consuming online

IT WON’T come as any surprise that we can’t believe everything we read online. It is something that has always been there, we’ve always had to question the content we consume on social media and double check where we find our information.

However, I have noticed a startling amount of ‘fake news’ creeping into my daily feed on social media of late, where ‘news’ items that are pushed to me based on algorithms put content before my eyes based purely on virality.

The particularly frightening thing is that I have caught myself watching videos online purporting to feed into a certain narrative and by chance I happen to read the comments only to discover that the story being pushed in the video is completely false and misleading.

Not everyone has the time to peruse the comment section on every video they see, but we are coming towards a time where we need to spend less time scrolling and absorbing content and more time questioning it.

In the last few years, a heady combination of world events that threatened to impact our lives has led to a large increase in the amount of content being created and shared online with ulterior motives. The simple fact that it is so easy to publish information through any of the social media platforms means that you can literally say anything online.

Nowadays, most of us turn to some source online to gather our news of the day – for some that is to read digital versions from reputable news outlets, but more and more people are turning to social media as their main source of news. Overall, the internet offers a diverse array of sources for news information, catering to different interests, perspectives, and formats. However, it’s essential to critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources to ensure that the information we read is accurate and trustworthy.

Falling for misinformation is a common concern in today’s world, given the abundance of information online and the speed at which it spreads. 

It is something that should be brought into more and more conversations around staying safe online, regardless of age.

I have had my 12-year-old get sucked into TikTok videos that she may sometimes relay to me, it’s with increasing regularity that I have to ask her to question the source of the content. Whatever about me as an almost 40-year-old woman trying to decipher what is real and what is not, the next generation will grow up in a world where misinformation and artificial intelligence live side by side in a largely unregulated online world, and that quite honestly makes me shudder.

It is worth giving some thought to implementing strategies for dealing with misinformation online so that you don’t find yourself being hoodwinked into an emotive narrative, and eventually pigeonholed into a way of thinking without even realising that it is happening. That might sound crazy but it is a serious reality in the world we live in.

If you see something online and it sparks emotion, don’t take it at face value and sprint to your favourite WhatsApp group to spread the news, take a breath and consider a few steps to make sure that the information you believe and the information you spread is true.

Take some time to check the source of the video – who posted the content and where did they post it? Certain platforms play host to more false narratives than others. A few clicks through a profile will usually give you a sense of a person, whether they are affiliated with a reputable organisation and their motives, so let that be the first sanity check you run.

Cross-check the information you inhale with trustworthy sources like news outlets and not just by doing a scan of the comments. My daughter only told me before bedtime tonight that she saw footage of the Eifel Tower burning down and said the comments on the video reiterated the truthfulness of the content. She did manage to arrive at the (correct!) conclusion that it was an AI generated video but was genuinely surprised at just how real the video appeared and how effusive the comments were in upholding the validity of the video.

It is often useful to use critical thinking when it comes to processing information we see online. Don’t take something at face value, instead be sceptical, ask questions and consider alternative viewpoints and the motive of the person posting the video.

Look for evidence, too, some statements should be backed up with science-based evidence and not on anecdotal evidence from a friend of a friend. Even at that, data can be manipulated to portray a narrative so again, always question, always look at the information from different angles.

If you think I sound over the top about what I see online and its truthfulness, I urge you to really examine the content you consume over the next while and see if you can spot some fakes. I hope you don’t, but I’d be increasingly surprised if you manage to avoid it!