The
subjects of fake news and media are two ideas that often correlate with one
another. With social media making a drastic rise over the past decade, there
has been an increasing amount of pressure put on journalists and users to create
compelling, yet accurate, stories. In addition, social media plays a massive
role in the lives of adolescents. In my opinion, a lot of people do not create
an accurate representation of who they are as a person on social media. This is
partly because of human nature, but on the other hand, a lot of teens are
affected by peer pressure. A majority of people would like to be perceived
better than they actually are. I mean, who would not, right? Evidence shows this
to be prevalent in society because even our current President of the United
States uses Twitter as a platform to discuss
what he believes to be “fake news”. The media has been in an absolute frenzy
ever since Donald Trump decided he was going to run for president. Individuals started
to heavily engage on his presence through social media, and it could even be
argued that some began to respect his rather blunt honesty. I try to stay out
of politics, but I think it is important to note that Trump winning the past presidential
election was largely due to his efforts on social media. Here is an
interesting article that speaks more to Trump’s involvement on controversial
topics in social media.
Image by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr via Wikipedia Commons
Interesting blog post Beau about fake news and social media. I do agree that social media can influence and shape the way one thinks about a particular thing. In one of my is Esociety classes we talked about the concept of authenticity, being true to oneself. How does that apply to online by being true and not being fake in the case of fake news? You can say that our current president has a very unique digital identity that is completely different than anybody else’s.
ReplyDeleteI think authenticity is huge on social media! I would say that the more "real" people are the people who garner the most respect. For example, Kevin Durant was recently bashed by the media for having fake accounts to respond to his haters. I think it's always better to be real than fake.
ReplyDeleteHey Beau!
ReplyDeleteI really dig this post you have here. You're statements are true, especially the one about social media being a big part in the lives of adolescents. I hate the fact that it's true; some people enjoy Mr. T's bluntness online, regardless of the fact that most of the time it's hate-filled or just unsupported by facts. I hate that social media made him popular because look where it got us.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Beau! I totally agree with what you have to say regarding fake news. Often times when Im scrolling through twitter i see many many funny articles or posts from "famous people" or "politicians" but when you look closer, it is not the actual verified handle that is sharing the information. That is how so many things get circulated and its insane that in this day and age stuff like that can have major influences on things like who the President of the United States, something so serious and crucial, crazy how it can be skewed so easily
ReplyDelete