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The Power of Disinformation on Social Media. And How It Can Kill You. - Bob Mayer

The Power of Disinformation on Social Media. And How It Can Kill You.

There’s a Facebook post going around about a group of Marines and children in the Pentagon on 9-11. It’s a nice story, heart-warming, etc.

It’s also dead wrong.

But it keeps getting reposted.

Why? Because people like it. It makes them feel good. But the bad thing is, other things get reposted without being checked and some of it can be dangerous.

Two posts that flare up: one is removing your headrest to break the window if your car goes into water. The other is changing your voicemail message on your phone if lost. For some reason, these appeal to people; most likely because they feel reposting is being helpful.

Except both are wrong. And can kill you.

It’s remarkably easy these days to fact check. I prefer to use AI, since it parses out both sides. Snopes also works.

Those two posts were a big part of the reason I wrote You’re Doing It Wrong: Drop The Myths, Misconceptions and Bad Advice You Believe. I pulled together over 100 of these; many of which I had wrong until I researched them. Honestly, there are still a couple I have trouble with, they’ve been ingrained so deeply.