By Peter Mosley
He didn’t do anything – just another “selfie!”
What can we do about Fake News and all the twisted and false stories we see online – mostly on Facebook, but the stories posted there start somewhere else, and continue to somewhere else, and so on and so forth.
I have a solution. First, have a peek at The Cluetrain it is an amazing start to try and understand what YOU are supposed to be doing online. You can read it free online, or buy the book. You can’t control what other people do, you can only control what you do. Plus The Cluetrain was the basis for the social web.
The recommendations; here are as follows:
- Post nothing, absolutely NOTHING, that you have not created yourself. That is pictures you took, articles you wrote. Full stop. If it’s not original don’t post it.
- If you saw an article, share and comment on it and make sure you give the writer full credit
- Don’t post any of those “heartfelt” pictures (Unicorns, kittens and mountainscapes!) with some pithy sayings. This is probably clickbait, not worth your time nor anyone else’s and certainly will not bring joy happiness nor peace in the world.
- If folks in your circles or friends or followers insist on doing the above – unfollow them. They will still be on your friend’s list, but you really don’t need that crap in your life. You really don’t. Yes, they mean well, but so did Nixon.
- If you read something and you don’t immediately believe it check it out. I am NOT suggesting dropping everything you do and embark on a massive research project … go to Snopes (www.snopes.com) and give it a quick search – in fact, Google it and see what comes up. If it is true there will be stories online about it – if it is false there will be none or a Snopes article.
- Stop downloading free crap. Pay for images, pay for music and pay for software. Who knows? You may want someone someday to pay you what you are worth and if you are a thief, well what exactly are you worth?
- Don’t spread malicious false gossip and don’t fall prey to believing outrageous tales because – “If it’s too good/weird to be true. it most certainly is!” This goes for politics, religion and most of all celebrities.
I believe if you try this for a few weeks you will not only feel better you will set a great example for all your friends and maybe we can all stop the fake news pandemic together!
This post had the highest number of hits for one day and has the most number of hits, period! It does not bode well for online blogs. Although the message is honourable – the tactic I employed – only once – is wrong.