We spend lot of time in Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or any other Social Media, Scrolling for status update from friends, forwarded messages, News, Video, articles shared from websites etc.,
While reading through these message feeds, do we consciously check whether the information is from a valid Source or composed intentionally by a spammer or from any anonymous user? Would you hit “Share” button for such message just because it is sensational or it triggered your emotions?
If yes and still unsure about reliability of the information, then you might end up in telling a “True Lie”.
Apart from Friends status updates, we also get forwarded messages with instructions like: “Share this to all your friends otherwise your account will be De-activated”, “Share this picture in 10 seconds. You will get rich in 15 seconds”, “Share it to 10 friends to get free recharge”, “This product is mixed with Toxic substance, don’t use it”, Plenty of Health Tips & it goes on and on.
Pause for a second before spreading such info. Read more to know how we are making a big mistake unknowingly.
Fake for ‘Fame’
In recent days, Social Media users are so much getting used to this habit of blindly hitting “Share” or “Like” button to any kind of “Sensational News”. People now confuse a ‘Social Media’ with ‘News Media’. The information on a News Channel indicates that a group of people, sitting behind News Corporation, are ensuring the reliability of the information published by them.
But there is no such validity check happening for the Messages shared in Social Media. Most of them are Fake aiming ‘Fame’.
Era of Messengers – Mistakes Upgraded
It seems that we are approaching an end of Social Media. Welcome to the era of Messengers (WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, Line etc.). These tiny apps are much faster in sharing Information with your Friends and are lite weight than a Social Media App.
Users started with sharing Funny Messages, Video, status updates, and Personal messages in these Apps. And now they got infected to hit share buttons blindly for non-reliable informational Messages in these Messenger Apps as well.
Be it Social Media or Messenger, We don’t have proper Organization to check on the validity of any information shared in it.
Verify, Void & Avoid
How to stop such spam messages from spreading?
Upgrade yourself to check whether any General Informational News that you receive in Social Media is backed up with the details
about the source (Source such as – a Valid Trustable Website/News Paper/Image/Video etc that the news is published or anything that certifies that the information is reliable).
If you cannot find a proper Trustable source or if you don’t have time to research on the validity of the information, then strictly avoid sharing it with your Friends.
If we don’t follow this prevention method, our beloved Social Media storages will end up storing Garbage Media. Email systems have efficient Auto Spam detection methods. But Social media corporations are yet to implement such techniques. Till that time, let’s keep it Clean.
Now, don’t think about whether to share this info with your friends or not? Hit “Share”.