If true

The burden of truth is on you.

Yes, I use social media. It’s entertaining and I learn things there — fascinating stories that my friends bring to my attention.

Some of it is fake. It’s never been easier to create fake information.

There’s a spot in hell for the people who create this stuff.

Right next to them, there’s a spot for the people who share what they created.

Are you a tool of the algorithm?

Two words haunt me on these platforms.

“If true.”

As in, some friend of mine shares something that looks outrageous or disturbing or funny with a comment like, “Very concerning, if true.”

Let’s be clear. If this is you, you had a choice.

You decided that you were too busy to verify if something is true, but not so busy that you can’t share it.

You have decided to be a slave to the algorithm, to think with your gonads, and to prioritize your outrage over facts.

You are not only part of the problem, you are the problem.

It’s hard but not impossible to verify things. There are easily identified legitimate news sources like national newspapers and news sites. If it’s outrageous and true, they will be writing about it.

If what you appear to be looking at is some random person’s “independent investigation,” a personal testimonial about what happened to their friend, a screen shot supposedly taken from a government official’s social media feed, or an email sent to you by your high school chum, assume it is false. The words “this has been verified and fact checked” in such a post are the equivalent of a rubber ink stamp from your local copy shop — they don’t make anything any more true that it was before it was stamped.

If it’s a photo or video, the same applies. It’s pretty easy to fake things these days. The more outrageous or funny it appears, the more likely that it’s fake. Especially if it’s about someone well-known.

It doesn’t matter if it’s just like “something they would probably do.” Fake is fake. Lies are lies. Lies that are similar to truthful events are still lies.

Our president isn’t helping this much; a whole lot of what he says or posts is fake. So he’s not a dependable source. Fortunately, there are a raft of reporters and fact checkers verifying or showing the lie in everything he says and does.

Three choices

If you actually want to be a responsible member of the information ecosystem — and every social media user is one, these days — you have three choices when encountering a supposed fact that stimulates the anger or humor center in your brain.

1. Too busy to check? Do nothing.
2. Got time to check? Check it. Then like, share, add commentary — whatever you like.
3. Decide to be a credulous tool of the algorithm, and like or share without checking. This tells everyone reading what you shared that you’re too lazy to care about truth.

Adding the words “if true” doesn’t absolve you from being responsible. In fact, they only verify your laziness. You’ve labelled yourself as someone for whom outrage or humor are more important than accuracy. In other words, a useful idiot.

You’ve been manipulated. It’s not too late to change.

Join the truthful people. We’d love to have you.

And teach your children about truth while you’re at it.