Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and they can especially gain traction on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. It is important to note that people who fall down the rabbit hole of misinformation and conspiracy are not all tin foil hat wearing, so called “crazy” people who lock themselves in a bunker waiting for the end of the world. Conspiracy theories are no respecter of persons and can captivate and cause confusion, fear, and even form wedges in our personal relationships if we are not careful in how we ingest online media. Today we are going to discuss what conspiracy theories are and how we can address them in our online activities.
To start, we will take a brief six-question quiz to test our conspiracy theory IQ. This is not an intelligence quiz, but simply a way to show how easy it is to fall into believing false information online and it will give us some information about how conspiracy theories work, and why we fall for them. We will answer these questions together and see how we do!
This quiz was created by David Byler and Yan Wu in their The Washington Post opinion piece that we will go to here.
Now that we know how easy it is to fall for conspiracy theories, and that virtually everyone is susceptible, let’s talk about how we can improve our detective skills when it comes to finding the truth and spotting the false on our social media and news platforms.
As we learned from the rabbit hole quiz that false conspiracy theories are not always easy to identify, especially among the sea of information on social media. Some false conspiracy theories can come across as believable; even logical, whereas other accurate historical events can seem too outrageous to be true. False conspiracy theories are often disturbing, even scary at times, and can create unwarranted anxiety and stress. Not to mention, falling down a rabbit hole of misinformation can lead to an altered emotional state, disrupt our personal lives, and breed contention in our relationships.
So, why do we sometimes gravitate towards conspiracy theories and false information, even when doing so does not serve us well? Part of the reason is because of how our minds work, and how our bodies have evolved to adapt and respond to an unsettling world. Let’s watch this video together about the appeal of conspiracy:
So, the question is what can we do about it? How do we know if information we find online is true, cause for alarm, misleading, or simply fake?
While there is no fool-proof way to sort out fact from fiction on the internet, we will discuss a few strategies to help us navigate online “news” and information.
One strategy we will discuss comes from researcher Mike Caulfield, from the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. Caulfield has developed a methodology he calls SIFT. This method gives online users a four-step process to help evaluate the sources of news or media claims and subsequently can help us determine the validity of a claim, and whether it deserves to be shared with others.
Our first step when we come across exciting and/or concerning content online is to STOP! I would argue our best defense against misinformation is to stop, take a minute, digest the information. Often our own intellect and reasoning, when applied logically and critically, can give us a good start in determining the truthfulness of something. Caulfield advises the user to “Ask yourself whether you know the website or source of the information, and what the reputation of both the claim and the website is. If you don’t have that information, use the other moves to get a sense of what you’re looking at. Don’t read it or share media until you know what it is.”
It is tempting to immediately share information that seems time sensitive or that “if true” may have negative consequences for the people we love, but we need to resist the urge to share it until we have a better sense of what is going on. If the content invokes fear or heightened emotion, sit with that feeling for a moment and look further before you act.
That brings us to the next step which is to INVESTIGATE the source. You do not have to be a professional journalist to do a simple background check on the source of the post, news article, or YouTube video. Look at who posted the content. Is the source credible? Does the source have a specific agenda? Taking an extra minute to check the source can quickly give you information to if the media is even worth your time and emotions.
Our third step is to FIND better coverage. If the content or claim is important to you and you have an invested interest in finding out if it is true, look beyond the original source and find the same claim (or counter claims) made by a reputable source. Finding the best source you can that corroborates the claim will aid in further research. If more credible sources for the claim are not found, then perhaps your search is over, and the claim is not valid.
Lastly, Caulfield urges users to “TRACE claims, quotes and media to the original context.” This step is not always needed but can be helpful. Perhaps you found a claim that was reposted by another party other than the original source; the other party may have misrepresented the data or distorted the claim. Tracing the claim back to the original source may clear up some misconceptions or give a more accurate view of the subject at hand.
Even though we are ALL susceptible to false information online, there is hope! We have tools that can help us think critically and pull ourselves out of or prevent ourselves from falling down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole!
Target Audience: The intendedaudience for this activity isretired/senior persons who engage online with social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. This activity may be taught atretirement communities, senior centers, libraries, or through family members, friends, and loved ones. The goal is not to educate people on how to become professional fact checkers, but rather to empower them with basic skills to figure out whether information they come across online is true and whether it is worth sharing with friends and family. Additionally, the goal is to reduce anxiety and fear that can be a result of absorbing, believing, and sharing negative misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Method: This activity can be presented as an educational class offered at senior centers, retirement living facilities, or even community libraries in the same vein as a Bingo hour or Ukulele class. The class will require a facilitator that will walk the participants through the blog activity on a shared screen, helping them digest the content provided. The goal of this blog/class is toteach participants how to apply simple investigative strategies and give them the confidence to think critically about information that they encounter online. The goal of this activity is to foster a positive learning environment with open dialogue from the instructor and participants.
References
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2021/conspiracy-theory-quiz
