5 ways to not be a victim of online misinformation

The way social media has been used and progressed over the years is commendable, however misinformation and toxicity has been increasing ever since as well which is not a good sign. Various social media platforms have been trying to reach an appropriate way to deal with this and figure out measures to avoid such conducts. Even then, it hasn’t been entirely possible to remove the misinformation social media spreads; be it the spreading of misleading information during the critical COVID-19 phase or limitless protests that occurred during these years for political reasons.

Recently, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has stirred up fake content as well. Fraudulent information is being shared which is unfair to the lives that are being sacrificed. The fraudulent information, fake news outlets, has been misleading many people and so, there should be awareness among us in order to avoid online misinformation.

Here are some ways you can succeed in avoiding that.

Being self-aware

We need to be highly self-aware when it comes to what’s going on in our surroundings and the world. World Health Organization (WHO) has come up with a term “infodemic”, meaning the tricks that agents are using to manipulate the audience. Being aware of such tricks is necessary in order to avoid such misleading content and the ways to do so can be:

• “Prebunking”- a type of debunking that helps in familiarizing yourself with the tricks of the disinformation trade.
• “Bad news”- The University of Cambridge has developed this online game their studies have shown can improve players’ identification of falsehoods.

Through such ways, or just educating yourself about this can help.

News reliability

We should be in touch with the recent happenings through legitimate sources, newspapers and media. We have to be careful with what we choose to read and spread. Ask questions like what is the news outlet, is it reliable or not and everything in-between. Check if the news is even legitimate, because many unnecessary fake news have had been shared for political propagandas leading to misinformation. Before sharing it on your Instagram or face-book stories, check the reliability of the news and examine if it’s true or not.

Check the source

After you check whether the news is fake or not, you need to check your sources as well. Pay attention to the details of the news and the if the source is trustworthy or not. As you double-check your stories, check various sources to confirm the reliability of that one source. Is it correct or does it have lesser factual information and more fraudulent ones? You need to be careful and thoroughly examine the sources because it is unimaginable how fast everything is being shared on social media. So, check your websites, read beyond the headline, think before sharing anything and improve your ability of analysing things.

Gently correct when someone uses wrong information

May times people just blindly follow others on social media and share misinformation for the sake of being active or presenting themselves as a good person. But most of the times, that information turns out to be wrong and from fake sites leading to online misconduct. People share anything on social media without thinking straight and cross-checking the information, so do not just blindly follow others. And if someone is sharing wrong information, it could be because they do not know about it themselves. Correct them if they don’t know and provide them with the correct information. This way you can be safe and a good person as well.

Educate yourself and when needed, educate others as well.

Lesser use of social media

Social media has its merits and demerits but the over-use of it can never be good. At least for accurate news information, we shouldn’t rely on social media. Think before sharing and if the pressure is too much, take a break or use it less for such purposes. Social media can be very toxic in some aspects and this is one of those.

So, if you are thinking of sharing something or it is just overwhelming, you can always pause and think about other things. Take care of yourself first and be safe both online and offline!

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