UNIT 6: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET
My name‿ is Rose,│ an(d) two years‿ ago I shared‿ a headline‿ about‿ a famous‿ actor that was completely false. My friends believed‿ it‿ an(d) shared‿ it‿ again,│ an(d) three days laterla-der‿ a fact-checking website showed that the story was‿ invented.
That‿ experience changed how I read the news. Now I check three things. First,│ the source:│ is‿ it‿ a credible news‿ organisation,│ or‿ a page with no address│ an(d) no editor? Second,│ the headline:│ is‿ it clickbait,│ written‿ only to make me click? Third,│ the date,│ because‿ ol(d) stories‿ are‿ often shared years laterla-der‿ as│ if they were new. It takes two minutes,│ and‿ in fact‿ it‿ is the mos(t) useful two minutes‿ of my day.
The problem‿ is that misleading news spreads much faster than corrections,│ because‿ it‿ is more‿ exciting. Some‿ of‿ it‿ is‿ also biased rather than false,│ which‿ is harder to notice. If we wan(t) children to verify what they read,│ schools mus(t) teach‿ it,│ just‿ as they teach mathematics. My father does not trust‿ anything he sees‿ on the internet,│ and‿ although that‿ is too extreme,│ I understan(d) why he feels that way.