The One With A Pandemic
I have talked a lot about how Web 2.0 technologies, mainly social media, have allowed us to improve our classrooms and build online communities. While so much great information can be obtained from social networks, there is a darker side to it. Not just the digital footprint we leave behind when we post online but how social media has negative effects on our society. We all know, not everything we read online is true, accurate or honest (FAKE NEWS!) But how does that "fake new" and varying opinions, cause problems in society?
Just looking at what is going on in the world today, the COVID-19 Pandemic, social media the driving force behind how we receive out information on this topic. One topic that is taking the country my storm and a topic that have millions upon millions of people voicing their opinions and concerns on social media. In a country this large, you can't expect everyone to agree and share the same viewpoint but the misinformation on the pandemic, crowding our feeds online, is causing us to miss the accurate information from the government.
According to Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, Professor at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, the popularity of these platforms and ubiquity of the platforms means that the public is no longer passively consuming inaccuracies but it is creating them. This is a very different dynamic than what took place during prior pandemics, pre-social media.
Along with mainstream media, people with little to no medical background are using social media to make their voice heard and act as an expert on a topic, they really have no training. I have also talked about what constitutes an expert online. "The public needs to more closely scrutinize and be “much more skeptical” about what they’re reading and hearing, particularly online." With what is happening in our world today, it is more important than ever to be careful and watch who you follow and where you get your information from online. Studies are showing people are spending more time on social media during the pandemic and it may not all be for positive reasons and may cause more harm to society than good.
Just looking at what is going on in the world today, the COVID-19 Pandemic, social media the driving force behind how we receive out information on this topic. One topic that is taking the country my storm and a topic that have millions upon millions of people voicing their opinions and concerns on social media. In a country this large, you can't expect everyone to agree and share the same viewpoint but the misinformation on the pandemic, crowding our feeds online, is causing us to miss the accurate information from the government.
According to Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, Professor at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, the popularity of these platforms and ubiquity of the platforms means that the public is no longer passively consuming inaccuracies but it is creating them. This is a very different dynamic than what took place during prior pandemics, pre-social media.
Along with mainstream media, people with little to no medical background are using social media to make their voice heard and act as an expert on a topic, they really have no training. I have also talked about what constitutes an expert online. "The public needs to more closely scrutinize and be “much more skeptical” about what they’re reading and hearing, particularly online." With what is happening in our world today, it is more important than ever to be careful and watch who you follow and where you get your information from online. Studies are showing people are spending more time on social media during the pandemic and it may not all be for positive reasons and may cause more harm to society than good.
* Reference: The Harvard Gazette https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/social-media-used-to-spread-create-covid-19-falsehoods/
Do you feel that Fake News is worse now with social media? I do, before, it took a bit more work to distribute news (I am thinking news papers, and 6 o'clock news), but now, with technology making it easier to create and distribute content, there is not much to deter the spread now.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many articles out there about how social media is failing to get a handle on the spread of fake news, especially during this pandemic. With so many people at home with nothing else to do except scroll through feeds on their devices and watch TV, they just re-tweet, re-post and share posts without actually researching the information. Fear fueling more fear over and over. There has become too much reliance on media in general and people do not take simple steps to fact check or to even use common sense. There are even those out there who are using their tech skills to make matters worse (photo shopping pictures and creating websites and theories to fuel hate and conflict). Web 2.0 skills and cyber ethics are important skills for all to learn in today's society. There are two worlds that we much learn to function in now as we grow up...the outside world and the cyber world.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with both of you! The fake news on social media travels so quickly it's hard to really stop it or even monitor it properly. People are also very click happy and definitely do not fact check before they repost or retweet. We definitely need to learn to navigate the cyber world as much as the real world, these days.
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