Ultimately you decide

It is true that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are the new homepages for news. Social media has replaced traditional news methods such as newspapers, and television and ways of interacting. Social media news is very accessible and convenient since you can view news stories while scrolling your timeline on Facebook.  Although it is the new way of receiving news, it affects us all. Most news on social media is not reliable. The spread of “fake news” is a big current issue in our everyday lives.

In the article “The Facebook Effect On the News” it speaks to the chronic issue of fake news. This article brings many things to light. The news we read off of Facebook has a very high percentage of being unreliable “fake”. So if it is unreliable news, why do people still favor it? The news off of this site is favored because it is entertainment. A big majority of people fail to realize that the news they read off of social media sites has a high chance of being unreliable and fictitious news and go along with the trend of sharing what they personally feel is important or interesting to them. 

I liked how this article shed light that the Facebook page owner ultimately creates his or her own news feed. An individual’s homepage is created and organized with their friend's likes which makes it an entertainment gateway for stories and when I say stories it is most likely just a fictional one. Even the word “news” itself has a different meaning now a day. The term “news” means newspaper or CNN for a person that knows of a world without social media. To a millennial, the term “news” most likely means Facebook timeline. I personally have a Facebook page and have experienced first-hand fake news off of it.

The most recent fake news I encountered was that of a video titled “Woman go to Facebook live to warn about the department of defense EMP Drill”. In this video two women that claim they are sisters speak of how our department of defense has failed to inform the public of an electronic magnetic pulse (EMP) that would be conducted November 4^th through the 6^th across the entire North American continent. An EMP would cause all electronic devices to fail and how there would be a huge blackout. They claim that the reason why they didn't bring this to mainstream media is to not cause panic. I found that funny since they were making a video to do just that and cause panic. I received this video from a friend, which is a perfect example how fake media spreads. It is November 4^th and I have yet to witness this “blackout” and I highly doubt there will be one but I’m certain a lot of people are still expecting one to happen. Facebook can have all the fake news it wants but ultimately you decide what you believe off of any social media site.  

https://youtu.be/Cx5VwQU-Q1Q