Bài học về tin giả trên mạng xã hội

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Dear Dan,

The spread of false and misleading (làm cho mê muội, lầm đường lạc lối, sai lạc) information, whether related to vaccines or politics, seems to be on the rise. Why do people share inaccurate information online?

—Calvin

Researchers recently asked people what mattered most to them in the content they chose to share on social media. The majority said “accuracy,” (độ chính xác) and when given a selection of real and fake news (tin giả) headlines, the majority were able to tell fact from fiction (hư cấu, tưởng tượng, bịa đặt). But when the researchers asked a separate group of respondents (người trả lời) which of these headlines they would be willing to share online, the misinformation (sự báo tin tức sai, sự làm cho đi sai đường) was the clear winner.

So why do people prefer to share misinformation, even when they value accuracy and are able to identify falsehoods? The researchers point to distraction (xao lãng, giải trí, tiêu khiển) and inattention (không chú ý, không tập trung). When they prompted Twitter users, even subtly, to think about accuracy before sharing content, the quality of the postings improved.

Now we just need to get social media platforms to do something that reminds us of our preference for accuracy before we share.

Bài trước: Không chỉ là giải trí