The Wayward Scholar

I remember a simpler time, where we would login into Facebook and see a stream of photos, irrelevant status updates, ridiculous quizzes about what type of pasta we are and interactive games. There were accessories such as poking, sending gifts, posting fun messages on each other’s walls. Social media was exactly that, a new media platform designed to help people connect with one another through screens and allow us to engage with each other socially even when we were apart. Now in many aspects social media still accomplishes this goal of connecting people and helping them organize around similar ideas and interests in ways that would be much more difficult otherwise.

However social media, Facebook in particular, has become dominated by news feeds rather than social feeds or timelines of our lives and interests. As a result of Facebook becoming a source for information we have seen a gross abuse of these platforms with the spread of what we call ‘fake news.’ This can take the form of news articles from sites and blogs that are not credible, memes, videos, screenshots, advertisements or the deliberate fabrication of images or real news stories.

We all partake in this spread of information in one form or another. Imagine if we were to only engage with Facebook and social media platforms for their original intended purpose and just to connect with one another across distances and share our own personal news instead? Could this massive shift in engagement from news to social make a difference in how fake news spreads like wildfire?

I am guilty myself of spending most of my activity reposting or sharing news articles that I read throughout the week. Sometimes I repost content to remind myself to read it later, sometimes I repost because I view the content as significant such as an obscure topic that may be unpopular in mainstream media new cycles but could still provide valuable insights to those following my page.

But with this talk of fake news and the reality that it spreads much farther and faster than anything real or credible, I had to ask: am I a part of the problem? It’s so easy for us to read statistics and think “wow, that’s a lot of people do x or y” without ever considering whether we are some of those people. Like most people, I also assume that I’m quite intelligent and could not be easily manipulated, exploited or turned into an echo chamber for some invisible agenda without my realizing it. Nevertheless, I felt the need to go back through my own news feed and give a hard look at the content that I have been posting and found something quite interesting and not what I had expected.

First, much of the news that I tend to share comes from a narrow source pool even if offline I read from a variety of sites, my repost come from the same sources. Secondly, all stories that are shared come from valid, accredited sources…except for the ones that don’t.

Now I’m not spreading ‘fake news’ but a great portion of my shares are from sites that are not technically, news. There are some incredible online magazines that I follow and organizations of independent writers that report on topics, subjects and issues that may in the current news cycle. But these reports even if backed up and factual, are still opinion pieces and think pieces. These writings that I share are critical analyses or cultural commentaries…valid, relevant and true but not news. It matters that I present reflections, ideas or radical thought as news because anything misused and misnamed becomes misinformation.

I present these ideas and thoughts when they cover topics that are controversial or take similar political stances that I am more likely to align with. I re-share what ignites passion, curiosity, intrigue, anger or fear within me even when I’m not aware. Fake news is not just foul memes or sites posting spam across the internet. It is this habitual connection to social media and Facebook and the need to engage even when it’s not social engagement but rather a distraction/entertainment for ourselves. How we engage with news and how it makes us feel can make a difference in our perspective of what is even considered news at all or how we choose to acquire it. It’s our habitual loyalties and failing to reflect and deliberate critically about what we are posting and why we are posting it.

Let’s be more mindful about posting something that is offensive, problematic, and knowingly false or is attempting to sew falsehoods or doubt. Even though you may enjoy the post or even despise the content, you don’t actually need to share it with the world. How many things do you repost or share without context that are toxic or problematic? Are we sharing these memes and posts for attention, to make a statement or from a learning perspective? Who does it serve? These are questions that we ought to ask ourselves on and off screen that can ultimately impact the quality of relational interactions. Making clear the line between social media and news sources is crucial and being intentional about our intentions is more than ideal.

Now I wouldn’t go as far to suggest that we simply revert back to posting more specific information about our own lives given the privacy violation playground that Facebook has become in recent years, particularly right here and here.

I would not suggest that we provide even more intimate, private details in a single concentrated space so it may be exploited. Of course this is some of the primary reasons that fake news has become an issue in recent times that you can see here.

No, I would suggest that we take an even more radical step and read our news offline or read our news directly from the accredited new sources that exist. I’d suggest that we engage with different articles and ideas that make us uncomfortable and that are unfamiliar to our own. Then we should share them with our peers and colleagues face to face, that we should encourage each other to have conversations with flesh and blood people and look each other in the eye instead of the empty blue light abyss of a comment section. Disengaging from social media does not mean the end of being social and connecting. In fact, it doesn’t appear to be doing us as many favors lately and we’re beginning to experience some of the very real consequences.

Take the time to sit next to a real person and feel their joy, pain, hurt, anger and fear radiate off their bodies as they discuss with what they value and what matters to them. You may find that we all have a lot more in common and can make more room for one another than previously thought. None of us own a monopoly on all of the answers to our questions or solutions to our woes and if we can remind ourselves of this fact, then maybe we can find our way back to truth.