I was looking at the Facebook the other day and saw a story that caught my eye. It was about an abduction of a child from my hometown, so naturally I was interested in what was happening and if I knew anyone involved.
The report was accompanied by the picture of the missing child with a plea for help to locate her. The post had been shared a few times and the expected concern was shown in the comments.
I was tempted to share the post myself but stopped short. I reminded myself that information like this absolutely NEEDS to be fact checked before you share it. So, I did just that. I called the local police and they hadn’t heard anything about it.
Today, sure enough, I saw a post online about the story. The headline said it all…
“St. Thomas Police: Social Media Reports Of A Child Abduction Are False:”
In this day and age of instant communication and the ability to spread information, factual or not, is incredible! But, take a moment and think about the damage that can occur as a result of this instant share phenomena.
- The more we are subjected to false information, the less we believe all information on its face.
- If we see Amber Alerts and missing children false reports continuously, we might begin to ignore them.
- The one we ignore, could be real and it won’t have the same support that it should.
It’s so easy to hit ReTweet, Share, RePin and Like, but are we really taking the time to be informed, or are we just going through the motions.
As the officer was quoted in the above story says;
Constable says social media users need to fight the urge to jump to conclusions.
“Unless everyone has the facts or there has been a news release from St. Thomas City Police or any police force for that matter people just need to be cautious that they don’t jump to conclusions that something has occurred when in fact it has not.”
It really doesn’t take that long to check facts. If the local police are on social media, they will more than likely post the information. There you have a reliable and credible source. If they aren’t using social, then a google search for a phone number will get you information fairly quickly.
Where do you put your checkmark?
Related posts: When does help hinder?
Reblogged this on emsmike and commented:
Please read. Tim is someone I totally respect and look up to. This is a great message and appies not everyone in SM!
Thanks Mike.
I have seen many “Amber Alerts” online and always checked first to make sure they are real. Then I found the Amber Alert page on FB and liked it. Its the fastest way to check Amber Alerts.
There are so many “share this” “RT this” that I have pretty well stopped sharing or RT’ing unless its something very important or something I feel strongly about. I think many people share or RT items – especially about missing kids thinking they are helping and you cant fault them for that – not everyone who logs on is as internet savvy as others are.
And so many times something gets published on the net by a supposedly “professional journalist” or “official source” that has obviously not been fact checked that many people can’t be bothered checking because if the “media” doesnt fact check why should they. Not saying its right, just how it is.
You’re bang on Nancy.
We should be able to trust “trusted sources” such as the media for the accuracy of stories.
I would never fault anyone who shares the information, for they are being far better users with their intent than many other people who use the internet as an opportunity to pursue negative intentions.
Thanks so much for contributing to the conversation.
Tim
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