Surfing the Internet: True or False?

The internet has been around for less than a century and has rapidly evolved over this time. With so much information at our fingertips, it’s absolutely vital to ascertain what is fact or fiction.

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Why it’s extremely important to sort facts & fiction

There are many reasons why it’s crucial to fact-check. For starters, there can be legal repercussions if you create and publish something that is not true. Furthermore, spreading false information can reflect poorly on you. It can lead you to be seen as untrustworthy or one to start drama. Another reason fact checking is imperative is because misinformation can be harmful to the public. It can cause mass panic and even have an influence on community policies. When it comes to posting research online, fact-checking can allow you to find more information to fill in blanks and review as well as maintain trust in the public eye to continue researching. There are many additional ways that verifying the truth impacts specific types of research. Overall, it’s critical to discern what is fact versus fiction for a myriad of reasons.

Basic steps & tips to educating yourself online

Since we understand the value of fact-checking, it’s time to figure out how to ensure we find our facts online! To begin, evaluate the site of the news you’re reading. Anyone can make a website and thus anyone can post whatever they want. Reliable websites are clearly organized with easy ways to contact them and contain up to date information. Sketchy websites may have unusual domain names, fishy links, and excessive ads or popups. Next, it’s time to evaluate the news itself. One tip that may help spot inaccurate news is to consider, “Is this article making me outrageously emotional?” If something you’ve read is making you so angry, it’s worth taking a serious look into. Plenty of things can be made up for attention and meant to cause intense reactions to capture the attention they seek. (This is not to say that real news isn’t without anger, shock, grief, etc. An article can still be very real and carry an emotional weight.) Here is a list of eight different trust indicators to help you decipher what news to trust. When it comes to evaluating news, AI can be one of the biggest hurdles nowadays. 

AI (artificial intelligence) is becoming more and more used with many search engines even using it. AI is capable of writing analysis of things, creating pictures, and even making videos. Although AI can be helpful in some cases, it is not always accurate (or helpful). For example, Google AI’s overview regularly gets things wrong. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but regardless of the reason, it’s essential to not take AI at face value. Find the sources that AI is using and evaluate them for yourself. When it comes to figuring out if a picture or video is AI, keep a close eye on small details in the media. Use the infographic below to help you see if any media is AI. 

One last tip is to expand your media exposure. If you only read blogs, try checking out YouTube videos or TV news. Read other people’s point of views whether that’s opposing networks or someone with an outside perspective. Also, pay attention to algorithms and how they’re built to show you content that it thinks you want to see. Often these algorithms have a natural bias and may exclude information to help you learn the truth of things. Overall, it’s crucial to be methodical, observant, and detailed when researching and learning new topics online. 

Time to learn all the new facts you can!

Now that you understand the importance of knowing the truth and how to best find it, you are ready to learn all you can on the internet!