Internet 101: Knee Jerk Reactions

“Quick! Grab your pitch forks! Someone posted an article on social media that I don’t like!” 

You can’t scroll through the newsfeed anymore without seeing knee jerk reaction posts…

“I am outraged that this is happening! We must all protest IMMEDIATELY!” 

So I click on the article and it turns out to be a dud. In fact, the article is twisting words to make it read a certain way.

Don’t buy into every piece of click bait on the internet. Take 5 minutes to do a quick search and see if there’s any validity. 

And please, please, please don’t make leaping assumptions about the message behind something or “how it’s poisoning us all” without doing some research.

It’s time to disband social media mobs. 

What is it accomplishing?

Most of the stuff you see smacks of fear and 95% of that fear is unfounded.

Be careful in our world of hyperbole. 

I know it’s not hard to believe that the machine–media and politicians–want us to be in a frenzy. When the people are in a frenzy, they will make rash decisions and allow things to happen that they might not otherwise agree to under normal circumstances.

And, no, this post is not about the Orlando massacre, but the same logic applies. 

What I’m referencing is a social media mob forming over a movie that’s coming out.

Seriously? Take a chill pill. It’s a movie.

If you don’t want to go, then don’t go. There’s no reason to stir up trouble about it.

Don’t blow up the internet with your rage about something that you read in an article. I mean, everything’s true if someone posts it on a website, right? 

Yeah. About that…

Stop and (really) listen

Beware of sound bytes because they are deceiving. 

In watching the news, pulling apart sound bytes is how they judge candidates. 

Words matter, yes, but context also matters. 

Only listening to sound bytes will give you a fragmented view of the political scene. 

Research the candidates. 

Listen to their speech(es). 

A little fact checking goes a long way. Don’t just choose a candidate based on news coverage. 

I hate to burst your bubble, but:

  • The news is not always accurate. 
  • Facebook is not always accurate. 
  • Political news websites are not always accurate. 

The best thing you can do is visit the presidential candidate’s official website.

 Start with that information (straight from the horse’s mouth) and base all of your other research from that source. 

This builds upon my post “Say no to crazy”. 

In order to not be politically crazy, it’s important to not be ignorant.