Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1296 points –
Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
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My mom was permabanned from Facebook in 2020 for constantly posting anti-vax nonsense so she just went to places like Gab and Parlor. 😑

Yowza. My dad did the same until he died (shockingly, of COVID), so I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I know what it's like having a crazy parent and it sucks.

Truth depends on whoever you're buying it from.

Damn, you're so enlightened.

How do you decide which sources are credible? I can't decide. Literally everything can be faked, and the more there is on the line, the more incentive and resources there are to do so.

What important stuff do you think there is that isn't faked? How do you decide that it's not fake?

Damn near everything you've ever accepted as true is stuff you were told or read and just accepted it based on how it was presented.

"I can't decide"

yes, we are all well aware of how dumb you are. Your stupidity is becoming quite well known on Lemmy.

This is why, in a lot of universities, they're trying to teach you how to learn, not necessarily how you should think.

We need to be able to examine the claims for ourselves and learn what red flags look like.

And a lot of the time we mix up "facts" with "opinions". Even when we are looking at facts, most of the time there are lies mixed with truth or conveniently forgotten truths. If we only get our information from a single source, or from biased sources, then we're going to miss some key information.

That's why it's good to make sure that you look at any story (especially politicized ones) from different angles and sources even if you don't agree with them.

Not only that but it can be enlightening to hear about a story from someone who's much more intimately familiar with the subject themselves.

For example, whenever it comes to news stories about the Supreme Court, I like to look for commentary from lawyers such as Steve Lehto or Legal Eagle. You'll find that they typically provide some very important context into why a particular decision was made that cuts through a lot of the outrage material that reporters push for clicks.

I believe that some popular news organizations are sufficiently trustworthy. At the very least, you can find sources that rank higher than others on the scale of trustworthiness.

Truth is truth, how it is described may be subjective. But there is still only one truth.

And lies are lies. How do you decide which is which?