What do you think of these five questions we think teens should ask themselves about new information:
• Who said this?
• Is it verified by reliable sources?
• Does the giver have a bias, and should I look for other sources?
• Do I have a bias on this subject?
• Where can I discuss this with others or find more information to form my opinion?
We need some real-life examples of UNTRUE information (no names will be used) of what students are reading and sending. We would love some text messages, Facebook entries, emails, website pages, whatever. Just remember it must be untrue.
Have you ever read something in a text message, on Facebook, or on a Web site, e-mail, Twitter — and, even though they knew it probably wasn’t true, passed it on to others? No one’s being critical here, but we’re looking for some examples. If they have some bad information they are willing to share, please do.
5 comments:
Although various factoids, blurbs, and articles are frequently sent around groups of friends and between people, most teens of my age and where I live seem to be quite critical of and discerning with the information they receive. This, however, may be a product of the place I live in or the general affluence of many of my friends.
If I receive some article or statistic of which I am skeptical, I usually look to corroborate it with a more reliable news source or research the issue myself. Again, for whatever reason, I believe that most of my peers would do the same.
Like Jackson, If a friend tells me an amazing story that I do not believe at first, I want to look into the article to see whether it contain true or false facts. Why do I do this? I do this because I want to prove to others that this piece may be true. If I send an untrue article, it will only make me look foolish, so I think most kids in my community are aware about whether they pass on facts or just rumors.
On the other hand, this passing of information I am going to tell is going to demonstrate the opposite actions of what I just said I usually do. I did not lie in my above paragraph. This example, was one of the few times I got caught up in the thrill of passing on a fake story.
There is this famous rapper that was speculated by other rapers as being a stripper before he hit his music fame. I never believed this at first when listening to this rappers songs, but when I discovered this picture on the internet I had to show others. I knew it was photoshopped, but I knew my friends would believe it if they did not know much of the rapper. So I passed it on and most people did not believe it, but it was a piece of false information that was too tempting to not make a big deal about it.
A lot of the time I feel kids and teens do not or do not want to decipher fact versus fiction from what they read in the news/media. Before I relay gossip I've heard or statistics I've learned I do think about where I have heard it. If I heard if from a place I can feel is reliable such as an official website eg. Official sports sites for sports statistics as opposed to a blog, CNN for news, or any other reputable website then I am more likely to pass the information I discovered on. However in all honesty I might pass on information which more likely then not has either been butchered or twisted, and I will still pass it on, just for the response I might get or to help argue a point.
One other important thing that I feel personally affects what information gets taken seriously is who started the rumor or who has been involved. This doesn't pertain to news online or in a newspaper but it does relate to news spread around a school or community. If a more popular or involved person starts a rumor it is more likely to be taken seriously then if someone who nobody knows of spreads the same thing.
In my mind I feel that it is basically always true that we look for information to help support our personal point of views. No matter what we do we are going to find ways to criticize the other view, or defend our own. The important thing I realize about news is if the reader feels they are educated on the subject, no news piece is gonna change their way of thinking. People are naturally stubborn, we will argue the point until it has so little relevance that we end up making a fool of ourselves before coming to an agreement. We will waste hours on a lost cause of just supporting the way we individually think, while we may totally ignore the opposing view even if it is from a more reputable source. In my opinion how well we absorb news and how much we pass it on, boils down to our preconceived bias and whether or not we can set ourself aside from what we feel to decipher true from false. And in most cases today that doesn't usually happen.
Last year, one of my soccer teammates texted me that MTV was going to create a show called "The County" about Marin. It was going to be like "Laguna Beach" but in Marin County, and was probably going to be filmed at Marin Catholic. I thought that this idea was so cool and I hoped that I knew some of the kids that were going to be featured in it. Even though there wasn't much detail as to what the TV show would be about, I believed it because it was exciting. I told a few of my friends who believed there was going to be the TV show too. A year later and there hasn't been any talk about this "The County" show, or anything online about it. It turned out to just be a rumor, but a lot of people in Marin ended up hearing and believing it.
Looking at the five questions, I can see that I should have thought about the answers to these questions before telling other people. After all, I heard it from one of my friends who probably heard it from someone else who wasn't the primary source of information. While it wasn't a "bias," persay, learning about a TV show being made in your hometown is an exciting thing. Of course people would want to believe this if they heard it. I even had a bias on the subject because I wanted to believe it too. In retrospect, I probably should have done more research about whether it was actually being made into a TV show rather than going to tell my other friends about it. Even little things, such as this, get spread around quickly and easily through Facebook and texting.
The news, in this day of an age, is a spectacle. It is a show. It has changed from a way to stay updated on current events to entertainment. What is now important when choosing a newspaper or news source is not what is being said, rather how it is said.
For example, when Michael Jackson died, I read someone's status that read, "R.I.P King of Pop". Immediately I searched the incident on the web and chose the story headlined "Michael Jackson dead, who's to blame?". This source probably wasn't going to be the most accurate story, but it was definitely going to keep me interested. The five questions previously mentioned are questions that ALL teenagers should ask, but that is like saying that teenagers should either say something nice or say nothing at all. How? Because teenagers actually prefer to do the opposite of what they should do (rejoice parents for the secret is out). Where does my basis for this sweeping generalization come from. Well, our society values those with the "first scoop" the same way in which news source on television will insert "you heard it here first" into their reports, teenagers want to be the first to tell someone something. The questions: who said this?, is it verified?, and the other three questions only increase the chances that the story discovered by the teenager will be proven untrue. We as teenagers like to live movie lives where crazy and wacky stories are possible. This why, we like continue to circulate crazy untrue stories with no basis, even though they are usually debunked one week later.
Example: The Obama Deception
Usually I just open my email, scan the messages, seriously consider giving random strangers from Nigeria my social security number (usually I decide against it) and that is about it. But, one day I read an email titled, "You have to see this" that had a link to a video titled "The Obama Deception". It spoke of Obama's alterioir motives and his involvement in occult society. Pretty outrageous right? It was 99.999% inaccurate. But that .0001% was just enough for me to share this with everyone I know. Even the sliver of possibility of being true was enough to at least generate 10 comments on facebook with the video as my status. I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to tickle the wildest parts of people's imagination.
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