I had this post in development for quite a long time now. I believe it's high time i get it out and post it. we live in a world of social media now, you could share every bit of information that you find, to a large number of people immediately. people who don't even know you can share that very information to others and it can get spread like wild fire in a matter of hours.Sharing has created viral medias, sensationalized news issues, even triggered revolution in some countries. so that is a great power for a common man and ...
"With great power comes great responsibility" (Quoted in Spiderman by Stan Lee).
Just because i quoted Spiderman, it doesn't literally mean you need to become a superhero and fight crimes on Facebook.But, Are you being responsible on Facebook while sharing information ? Of course, here i am not talking about your personal information (that's obviously your personal responsibility), I mean a larger level of sharing factual information. information that could be shared and read by many others,and could have an impact on an individual or a society.
Here are a few aspects of shared information which I believe is irresponsible and needs to be addressed.
1. Fake and False Information :
There is an enormous amount of False information being shared everyday by a lot of people in form of picture messages, Links and posts. A lot of those are fake facts created by users who just want to get attention to their groups or profiles. These messages and posts vary in topics from sports, politics to even religion. Some of the information I've seen look outright fake and completely false, but still there are plenty of people who share it and spread it, like it's a true fact.
Let me give you some examples I've seen. These were shared by plenty of people, each of these posts had thousands of shares. ( You may disprove me, if I have got it wrong)
a. Letter from Swiss bank to Indian Government (fake) :
This is a picture message that lists out the amount of money, a lot of politicians have in their Swiss bank accounts, It even has the Swiss bank seal on it. However, It's a complete fake document.
Why? - Swiss bank corporation's main feature is that it provides "confidentiality, security and discretion" to all it's account holders. It is completely exempt from extradition laws, which means that any country or government cannot demand information of it's clients or their assets from the bank, neither will the bank provide them(1).
Common sense question - why would all the politicians hide their black money in Swiss bank if it's going to let out all the details to the government agencies?
b. "imitinef mercilet" - The cure for blood cancer(misleading) :
The message that says this 'cure for cancer' drug is available in Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, it's free and contact them for details. False misleading information, It's not a cure for blood cancer, rather a drug (also called Imatinib mesylate) to treat blood cancer and It's not Free. It costs $32,000 for a year(2).
Why? Cancer research is going on in full scale all around the globe, there are drugs to treat blood cancer, not completely cure it. However, there are certain forms of cancer for which cure has been found, but they have all been a global level news feature. Trust me, when an actual cure for blood cancer comes you'd definitely come to know.
Common sense - Isn't it very obvious, a cure for cancer is found & it's not in news but it's being spread in form of messages on Facebook?
This is a very sensitive bit of information, by sharing it, you are increasing the hopes of many cancer patients and their relatives. not only that, you are giving unnecessary headache to the cancer institute receptionist.
c. The Rama Sethu (false) :
The highly controversial but also a highly false information that's being shared on Facebook. it's a picture message that says "1750000 (1.75 million) year old man made bridge between India and Srilanka built by Lord Rama"
I agree, the bridge does exist. there are satellite images of that particular stretch of Land between the two countries, It's also called "Adam's Bridge". however, the other information that it's 1.75 million years old is totally false.
Why ? the radio carbon dating and thermoluminescence dating done by Bharatidasan university and GSI(geological survey of India) determined that it ages about 4000 years(3). Secondly, the first ape (Homo erectus) evolved only about 1.2 million years ago, and Humans evolved from apes only about 400,000 years ago. so, It's definitely not man made.
Common sense - I've went to school, college and even have a masters degree, so I can only believe in facts, I have a completely different perspective about Ramayana and i cannot see this in a religious view, but there are a lot of people who share this based on their blind religious faith, which is a lot more powerful than common sense.
This are just 3 of the obvious examples from a whole lot. There are hundreds of fake,false and misleading information shared on Facebook, in fact there are websites, dedicated to tell the truth about this bad information.
2."Like/share this pic, Facebook will donate 1 cent for each share"
I am sure you might have come across 1 or 2 posts like this especially with extremely graphic pictures of babies or animals. this is not only a hoax, you might know Facebook has 950 Million users, they are definitely not going to donate money for every share, they will go bankrupt in hours. Also, the graphic pictures are very uncomfortable to see. Remember you are sharing in a public platform, not everyone has the same level of comfort as you do. many might find it gruesome and disgusting, be courteous to others.
3. Glorifying Celebrities (read actors):
This is quite a new trend, mainly focused in a smaller region of South India.However, it's a menace. There are tons of pictures and messages shared about certain actors and their so called achievements, and thrashes his competition with vulgar slang/imagery. It is fine, if you are a fan of certain actor and are showing your love for them, but why talk about trash the other actors? they both do the same job of entertaining people. if you don't like his movies, don't watch them or talk about how bad they were. but do not use vulgarity in portraying someone bad.
Same is true for Sports persons, if you are a fan of one athlete and you think he's better than the other.. show the statistics, records say he's better than him in this aspect. It's Sportive and gives added respect instead of slandering them based on a bias. it's not a mature thing to do.
So what can you share ?
There are millions of true, interesting and informative articles,blogs, videos and picture facts of extremely diverse fields available on the Internet. Articles from any legitimate news organizations like CNN, Reuters, TIME, Huffington posts are all fair game. they have a direct reference, which are genuine. even Wikipedia is fine as most articles do contain references.
Lot of people share Internet memes, Quotes, " if you had this in childhood, you were awesome" pics, movie clips, music videos etc... There's nothing wrong in sharing those pics or messages, as long as it's not hurting anyone. Of course, you cannot satisfy everyone, but at least think about your immediate surroundings before sharing stuff.
If you find any interesting facts of information, you want to share it, There are plenty of sites such as hoax slayer, hoaxorfact etc.. that do tell if the fact is true or fake.
If you are even lazier to do it, there's a simpler tool called 'Google'( I am sure you must have noticed it in the Internet).
So i request my fellow friends and Facebook users... To SHARE Responsibly.
Do you Agree with me? please share this blog, Promote responsible sharing. (you can even comment, nothing wrong in it)
Disagree with me ? Please leave a comment about your views.
References :
1.Swiss bank document - a hoax
2. FDA approves imatinib
3. Rama Sethu is only 4000 years old
"With great power comes great responsibility" (Quoted in Spiderman by Stan Lee).
Just because i quoted Spiderman, it doesn't literally mean you need to become a superhero and fight crimes on Facebook.But, Are you being responsible on Facebook while sharing information ? Of course, here i am not talking about your personal information (that's obviously your personal responsibility), I mean a larger level of sharing factual information. information that could be shared and read by many others,and could have an impact on an individual or a society.
Here are a few aspects of shared information which I believe is irresponsible and needs to be addressed.
1. Fake and False Information :
There is an enormous amount of False information being shared everyday by a lot of people in form of picture messages, Links and posts. A lot of those are fake facts created by users who just want to get attention to their groups or profiles. These messages and posts vary in topics from sports, politics to even religion. Some of the information I've seen look outright fake and completely false, but still there are plenty of people who share it and spread it, like it's a true fact.
Let me give you some examples I've seen. These were shared by plenty of people, each of these posts had thousands of shares. ( You may disprove me, if I have got it wrong)
a. Letter from Swiss bank to Indian Government (fake) :
This is a picture message that lists out the amount of money, a lot of politicians have in their Swiss bank accounts, It even has the Swiss bank seal on it. However, It's a complete fake document.
Why? - Swiss bank corporation's main feature is that it provides "confidentiality, security and discretion" to all it's account holders. It is completely exempt from extradition laws, which means that any country or government cannot demand information of it's clients or their assets from the bank, neither will the bank provide them(1).
Common sense question - why would all the politicians hide their black money in Swiss bank if it's going to let out all the details to the government agencies?
b. "imitinef mercilet" - The cure for blood cancer(misleading) :
The message that says this 'cure for cancer' drug is available in Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, it's free and contact them for details. False misleading information, It's not a cure for blood cancer, rather a drug (also called Imatinib mesylate) to treat blood cancer and It's not Free. It costs $32,000 for a year(2).
Why? Cancer research is going on in full scale all around the globe, there are drugs to treat blood cancer, not completely cure it. However, there are certain forms of cancer for which cure has been found, but they have all been a global level news feature. Trust me, when an actual cure for blood cancer comes you'd definitely come to know.
Common sense - Isn't it very obvious, a cure for cancer is found & it's not in news but it's being spread in form of messages on Facebook?
This is a very sensitive bit of information, by sharing it, you are increasing the hopes of many cancer patients and their relatives. not only that, you are giving unnecessary headache to the cancer institute receptionist.
c. The Rama Sethu (false) :
The highly controversial but also a highly false information that's being shared on Facebook. it's a picture message that says "1750000 (1.75 million) year old man made bridge between India and Srilanka built by Lord Rama"
I agree, the bridge does exist. there are satellite images of that particular stretch of Land between the two countries, It's also called "Adam's Bridge". however, the other information that it's 1.75 million years old is totally false.
Why ? the radio carbon dating and thermoluminescence dating done by Bharatidasan university and GSI(geological survey of India) determined that it ages about 4000 years(3). Secondly, the first ape (Homo erectus) evolved only about 1.2 million years ago, and Humans evolved from apes only about 400,000 years ago. so, It's definitely not man made.
Common sense - I've went to school, college and even have a masters degree, so I can only believe in facts, I have a completely different perspective about Ramayana and i cannot see this in a religious view, but there are a lot of people who share this based on their blind religious faith, which is a lot more powerful than common sense.
This are just 3 of the obvious examples from a whole lot. There are hundreds of fake,false and misleading information shared on Facebook, in fact there are websites, dedicated to tell the truth about this bad information.
2."Like/share this pic, Facebook will donate 1 cent for each share"
I am sure you might have come across 1 or 2 posts like this especially with extremely graphic pictures of babies or animals. this is not only a hoax, you might know Facebook has 950 Million users, they are definitely not going to donate money for every share, they will go bankrupt in hours. Also, the graphic pictures are very uncomfortable to see. Remember you are sharing in a public platform, not everyone has the same level of comfort as you do. many might find it gruesome and disgusting, be courteous to others.
3. Glorifying Celebrities (read actors):
This is quite a new trend, mainly focused in a smaller region of South India.However, it's a menace. There are tons of pictures and messages shared about certain actors and their so called achievements, and thrashes his competition with vulgar slang/imagery. It is fine, if you are a fan of certain actor and are showing your love for them, but why talk about trash the other actors? they both do the same job of entertaining people. if you don't like his movies, don't watch them or talk about how bad they were. but do not use vulgarity in portraying someone bad.
Same is true for Sports persons, if you are a fan of one athlete and you think he's better than the other.. show the statistics, records say he's better than him in this aspect. It's Sportive and gives added respect instead of slandering them based on a bias. it's not a mature thing to do.
So what can you share ?
There are millions of true, interesting and informative articles,blogs, videos and picture facts of extremely diverse fields available on the Internet. Articles from any legitimate news organizations like CNN, Reuters, TIME, Huffington posts are all fair game. they have a direct reference, which are genuine. even Wikipedia is fine as most articles do contain references.
Lot of people share Internet memes, Quotes, " if you had this in childhood, you were awesome" pics, movie clips, music videos etc... There's nothing wrong in sharing those pics or messages, as long as it's not hurting anyone. Of course, you cannot satisfy everyone, but at least think about your immediate surroundings before sharing stuff.
If you find any interesting facts of information, you want to share it, There are plenty of sites such as hoax slayer, hoaxorfact etc.. that do tell if the fact is true or fake.
If you are even lazier to do it, there's a simpler tool called 'Google'( I am sure you must have noticed it in the Internet).
So i request my fellow friends and Facebook users... To SHARE Responsibly.
Do you Agree with me? please share this blog, Promote responsible sharing. (you can even comment, nothing wrong in it)
Disagree with me ? Please leave a comment about your views.
References :
1.Swiss bank document - a hoax
2. FDA approves imatinib
3. Rama Sethu is only 4000 years old
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