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Clowns and Social Media...

10/4/2016

2 Comments

 
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The most recent rumor spurred by social media seems to be combining implausibility and fear. And, this is not to suggest that rumors are new to the social media network, but that they are travelling faster and there is very little tracking as to the truth or rumor of an event.
Clowns carrying a knife, gun, or some other dangerous weapon are appearing in so many places that police can’t keep up with the reports. And so far there have been no actual clowns with evil intentions; yet! But what happens when someone gets the idea to capitalize on the hype and really carry out a tragic act. Will the warning be considered just part of the rumor mill and be disregarded? Or will it escalate like spoofing and swatting?
It requires a fair amount of resources to follow up on a complaint, particularly at a college or university. The schools own intranet can only send a threat message once it has been verified and that takes valuable time. And that happens as we approach Halloween?
We are living in a time where fear is being used as a weapon against us by unseen enemies. It is a time when we should be attempting to tamp down rumors and innuendo. But we are failing to be responsible and use reason to increase our sense of safety. Instead, we are doing this to ourselves! It is very similar to the hate messages that are always more “entertaining” than those comments that are positive. But when did we become fixated on hate as entertainment?
If there is a trend that I worry most about it is the fact that we are losing civility and becoming more course in our collective dialog. And, we are doing it at warp speed. When I watch our political discourse I often wonder if the people running for office are generating the negative rhetoric or simply reflecting what they observe. It would be great if everyone took some time to think about what they read on Twitter or Facebook and did their own fact checking instead of instantly starting to respond…
 
 
 


2 Comments
Jennifer Brandt
11/6/2016 08:26:49 pm

Totally agree... I'm astounded by the number of people who will share a story on facebook and their comment makes it clear that they believe it at face value. A co worker had shared a story about Johnny Depp purchasing the land where the battle of Wounded Knee took place and giving it back to the Indians.... My first thought was "isn't that land a national park? and when did the government start selling off park land?" and then "Is Johnny Depp part Indian? why else would he do it?" The answer to these questions made me think this wasn't true but to give my coworker the benefit of a doubt I looked it up... Of course it wasn't true and I posted the Snopes.com article to let her know it wasn't ... Over a period of time she posted several such stories and always included a comment indicating she thought the story true... but obviously she didn't check her facts because every time I checked it out it was fake. I eventually unfriended her because I have better things to do with my time than read fake news, but one would have thought she would have figured out that she should check the stories out before passing them along after I pointed out several were fake. Another coworker recently brought up the clowns issue at work and said they had read articles or something about the clowns gathering and having a purge.... It took a bit for me to realize he wasn't meaning a racial cleansing but a night of lawless chaos... so I come home and read about it out of concern and all.... guess what, again another fake story. It amazes me how people think that because it is on facebook or the internet in general it must be true. The sad thing is my coworkers and I are research analysts! Maybe doing so much research at work makes them not so interested in the truth at home? Sometimes I feel thinking is becoming a lost art, lol.

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Kaye
1/17/2018 02:48:09 am

I could not agree more; everything you said is true and factual. Many people are faced with no idea how to reasonablly or logically think in general, so instead of doing their own research to find the truth; they instead listen to others, and repeat it as fact. Ironically, many of the people they are listening to, are purposely manipulating them to help spread the garbage, in order that many will not hear the truth. Our once civilized society has been turned upside down, by those who weren’t taught proper manners, morals, or how to treat others with respect, in a civilized society, like many of us were as children. I hope this trend turns itself around.

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