The Fallacies in Social Media
- Faith Glodoviza
- Jan 6, 2018
- 3 min read
Social media. For sure the applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr etc. are the words pooling into our minds when we hear the golden words ‘social media’ because it basically makes the world go round in the modern age. And for sure many of us know and use these platforms. But how about a social media world containing loads of fake information? Let’s dig deeper with the term “fake news”.
According to Joseph Morong’s TV series “Fact or Fake”, in one of his episodes he made mention that fake news became the word of the year in Collins Dictionary. But what really is fake news? According to netizens, it is the invention of fallacy information, are peddled by individuals while using their platforms to misinform and sway people. For a minute there, it’s scary to think how social media became a victim of fake news but scarier to think that it is us being the peddlers and also the victim.
Some example of fake news last year is about Bongbong Marcos’ victory against Leni Robredo in the site named “DAILYNEWZPH.info” and it even reached 10,000 shares. Well infact, the date of the earliest vice presidential recount is scheduled on February 2018 which is also according to their judge. But if you try to open it, it will lead you to a blank page or in other words it’s not supported with a news article/ report.
Fake news are lies with no verifiable facts, sources, masquerading as news. Peddlers of fake news copy the real website to make their website believable. An example of this is the news about Senator Risa Hontiveros and Senator Kiko Pangilinan spotted holding hands after visiting Senador Leila De Lima in Camp Crame. It became a really big issue until Sharon Cuneta released a statement about the rumor. Fake news are fake but the consequences are real.
Another example of this is the news about Imelda Marcos being dead. She just joked about it and said that she’s active and still alive in the congress. Another fake news is that President Duterte offers 250, 000 compensation for OFW’s. this news came out from the facebook page named “Sen. Manny Pacquiao Trending News Today”. But if you open it, it contains a series of trending videos. It is such a scam.
And ofcourse “Walang Pasok” advisories will always be present when it comes to dealing with fake news. Because of these fake news, it confused many workers and students that’s why it made them believe that it’s really a holiday.
We can say that Philippines is a democratic country and many of our heroes that we only know now by name fought for our freedom. That's why freedom of information is bestowed in us. According to sunstar.com.ph in the recent survey conducted by CS Media, 31% of the millennials shared a news story and later on learned that it was fake. Now I can say that with the lack of awareness, we unconsciously become the victim or a peddler of fake news.
Even the Philippine Secretary of Justice has been alleged or claimed to have used fake news as basis of various intelligence reports of his department. Fake news today has shaped our opinions, created frictions among individuals and groups and even put undeserving people into power.
Fake news creates a really big impact on the people especially that almost all of us uses social media. Especially that there are some articles that considered our era as "the age of fake news" or "the fake news phenomenon". It is spread everywhere that’s why we should be aware and conscious about the information we believe in and the information that we don’t. Remember that we can be deceived by our eyes so let us think critically at times. If you cannot stop fake news, don’t be a pioneer of spreading it.
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