From furniture store conspiracies to fake psychology, misinformation is everywhere online. Maybe you’ve even shared something you’ve learned from Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok with your friends, only to later learn you shared information that wasn’t true at all.
We don’t always engage in critical thinking when we’re browsing social media. Often we’re just trying to relax a little and have some fun during our free time, so we disengage our brains and don’t think too much about what we’re seeing and reading. Unfortunately, that’s exactly when we’re most likely to fall into the trap of believing false information.
Here are some tips to help you identify and avoid misinformation on the Internet:
Don’t Believe Everything You See Online
As George Washington once famously said, “It’s easy to lie on the Internet.”
Okay, fine, that’s a lie—George Washington never said anything about the Internet! I’m sure you knew that already, since the Internet was invented almost 200 years after Washington’s death, right? But sometimes, lies aren’t always so easy to spot.
If you see a video or a post with information you’ve never heard before, be cautious, particularly if the information is provided without a source or from someone without credibility. Be on the lookout for people using vague language like “I found out…” or “I learned…” without actually stating where they learned it.
When in doubt, ask for a source!
Check the Source
Unfortunately, sources can’t always be trusted. It’s easier than ever to make professional-looking websites, and anyone can put anything they want online. This means even after finding a source, your job isn’t quite done yet.
Find the author of the article or website, and look them up to see if they’re credible. Even reputable news sites publish op-eds, guest essays, and satirical articles, so it’s important to be aware of the context of what you’re reading. Try to find multiple sources that support the same information.
You should also be aware of satirical websites like The Onion, Reductress, ClickHole, and more. The last thing you want is to mistakenly share an article from one of these websites and present it as fact.
Like this article from The Onion:
And finally, don’t settle for screenshots—go straight to the source. Not only will it provide vital context (like whether the piece is satirical), but screenshots can be manipulated. For example, do you think Taylor Swift really tweeted this?
It may look like a real tweet, but in actuality, I made this image in just a few minutes using a fake tweet generator. Anyone with a computer can make a celebrity say anything they want.
Question the Motives
Ask yourself what the person sharing the information is trying to accomplish. Do they want to convince you of their own viewpoint? Are they trying to sell you something?
Take, for instance, the following article from BuzzFeed:
This article was sponsored by Target, and BuzzFeed may even collect a share of the sales from the links on the page (these are called affiliate links). Basically, Target paid BuzzFeed to write this. Does that mean the author was forced to write the article and secretly hates her Target sheets? Probably not. But knowing it’s a paid partnership is important to helping you evaluate the information.
Another aspect to consider is bias. Everyone has a unique point of view—there’s no getting around it, and that’s okay—but you should recognize how someone’s perspective might color the way they present information to you. Is there anything being left out that would detract from the point they’re trying to make? This is another reason you should always try to find multiple sources.
Go Beyond the Headline
Content creators want you to see and react to their content, which means information is often presented as sensationally as possible. Even if the headline is technically correct, it may be misleading. Like this headline from CBS News:
The article from CBS News explains that a woman really did die after receiving the first dose of the COVID vaccine, but if you read on, you’ll see that no link was found between the vaccine and the woman’s death.
Remember: The only way to know the full story is to read the full story.
