First, I heard that the Las Vegas massacre was committed by an alt-right nut job. I did not make sense because this was a country music concert and most country music fans are relatively conservative.
Then I heard it was committed by by an alt-left nut job. This did not make sense because this guy was from Texas and Las Vegas, a gun enthusiast and known not to care much about politics.
Then I heard that ISIS had claimed that he was a Islamic brother that had been converted a few months earlier. I did not believe this because ISIS would claim that the bee who stung me last week was an Islamic brother just to prove they are still powerful today.
I read heard the guy had Antifa literature, he had radical Islamic literature and that he was a racist (also did not make sense since he was a white guy shooting at other white guys). He had an accomplice, his wife was an accomplice and other assorted tidbits that someone as irrelevant as John Doe to a media outlet as relevant as CNN could come up with.
And you know what? It was all bullshit.
I love Twitter. For me, it is very entertaining. Sometimes, one can get good information before the media releases it. Sometimes (well, most of the time) the information is way off or you only get half the story. Let us face it: it is hard to pack a lot of facts and resources in a 140 character tweet. Luckily, people will be able to spread crap that is 280 characters long! Yay!
There is a competition on Twitter that made it from an online center of interesting information to a mob of “fake news” and gossip.
The need to have their tweets liked, their accounts followed and there words retweeted seems to be a big deal for those that have a small to medium presence. These folks might be writers, minor celebrities or bloggers (like me). They use Twitter to further their online presence. They are famous for coming up with fake news or rumors just to get bites from the people that might be following them. They are searching for attention. Maybe those folks will have their words retweeted by a celebrity or a whale (someone that is followed by thousands of users).
Organizations with a larger presence on social media are also not immune to doling out a little trash. This is the real “fake news” we are always hearing about. And, trust me, fake news is not limited to the left wing media that Donald Trump is complaining about. Foxnews, Briebart and Infowars are also known to sling a little mud also. They do it to break the news first. To draw users to their websites to read the “real” story (and click on the sponsored material and ads).
But, before we get crazy, blaming the publishers of this nonsense, let us look at the reader too. Trust me, we are not innocent. We read this crap with unfiltered eye, retweet it to every social media outlet we belong to and then debate to the death that the misinformation proves our brilliant political insight. “Look how smart I am! I knew Lady Gaga was a communist transsexual man who fought for ISIS!” (I made that up to prove a point. I am pretty sure she never fought for ISIS).
We, as the public, also love over complicating things. Real life is so boring. We love conspiracies. Conspiracies are cool. Conspiracies are fun. Conspiracies also help to explain the explainable. To make sense of something that seems impossible. The undetected attack of a naval base in Hawaii, the murder of a beloved president or the destruction of a pair of capitalist icons and deaths of 3000 people. It does not make sense that the Japanese could just sneak a squadron of planes or a lone gunman can shoot a president or terrorist hijackers could destroy the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Conspiracies make the unreal easier for the mind to grasp.
And they are popular on social media (including YouTube and Instagram). Just look at the Las Vegas massacre. It cannot be that some guy just lost his mind and started shooting people. He must be involved in some form of international terrorism organization or be some sort of political fringe group.
Well, I believe the gunman in Las Vegas snapped and killed those people by himself. I believe the Japanese surprised us at Pearl Harbor, that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy on his own and that terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. I do not see the need to complicate things where there is no evidence.
And that is how I treat social media. I do not believe everything I read. I look at the source and decide whether it is something I want to do further research on. If it is not a reliable source, I forget it. There is a lot of good information out there, but there is also a lot of garbage. Especially when there is big news. The rumors just flow. It is best just to let the news happen and
So do not fall for all the misinformation. Do not allow any social media platform to be your sole source for news. Always have a wary eye. Only then will you become well-informed.
Follow my on Twitter @RunninFewl
Photo courtesy of:
People.com
nbcnews.com
bohemianbowmans.com
nbcusa-inc.com
all-thats-interesting.com
hackcollege.com
