Digital learners are all over the world learning how to use social media and online tools. It is of the upmost importance that when learning to use an online tool such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter for example that we must not under any circumstances start to spread fake news, it is unethical and totally unacceptable even if you are still only a learner. In my opinion people should be held accountable for such things. the current pandemic is a great example as social medias sites are having to increase security and crack down on users who have not done any research or have any idea of what they are sharing who spread posts across the said sites of fake news in regard to the coronavirus. in the following article it goes on to say; “Facebook clamped down on online coronavirus rumours and banned ads that promoted the sale of medical face masks. Google flooded people’s search results about the growing pandemic with government alerts and removed YouTube videos urging people not to get treated.”
A digital citizen is defined as someone who uses internet tools regularly and effectively, in this case the latter is not true as more and more people everyday spread fake news across multiple platforms. In many cases people still share fake news even when they can tell themselves that it is simply not true. “Gordon Pennycook at the University of Regina in Canada and colleagues have found that people can identify fake news easily, but may unwittingly share misinformation on social media because they aren’t thinking analytically.” The article mentions that when people share these fake news articles they most of the time they aren’t thinking analytically which means that they are not using a very important component of visual thinking that gives someone the ability to problem solve on the spot and identify the issues that could arise as a result of doing what they are about to do. It does not matter if you are still a learner, we all know right from wrong so when we are on the social media platforms that we use it is beyond important that we understand what we are looking at and we are aware that we should not believe everything we see just because its online. The following quote comes straight from an article discussing the spread of fake news and why digital literacy is vital for online use. “After all, the spread of misinformation online is related to how people use sites like Facebook – and this is shaped by the fact that Facebook is, first and foremost, a social space.” in my experiences of using social media I see a lot of the older generation using mainly Facebook for example and a lot of the time it is clear to me and most others that they see Facebook as strictly a social platform where it’s just them and whoever they’ve added as friends and they share news articles without proper research prior to doing so. This is one of the leading causes for the spread of fake news around the world social media apps. “11 percent of users older than 65 shared a hoax, while just 3 percent of users 18 to 29 did. Facebook users ages 65 and older shared more than twice as many fake news articles than the next-oldest age group of 45 to 65, and nearly seven times as many fake news articles as the youngest age group (18 to 29).” This quote right here perfectly sums up my point and why it if vital that people who use social media are capable of understanding what they are doing on social media. On this article there was even an Ad where a young person was saying, “I don’t need a doctor for covid-19 i’m young only old people get sick” the image was gone when i went to get it for the blog however it is a perfect example of what spreading fake news can do to vulnerable people who for lack of a better for are a bit naive when it comes to believing that they see on facebook.
To conclude, I believe it is vital that the people who use social media platforms regularly are full aware of the digital literacy they require in order to stop the spreading of fake news across the online world. whether your are 18 or 65 it is still extremely important that we use our digital citizenship properly and we use it for its purpose of learning and communicating with other via the medium of social media rather than using the power we have on those sites to spread fake news and cause harm on the vulnerable who will believe anything they read. I do strongly also believe that it should be harder to share articles especially as it is virtually impossible to track who makes accounts of social media sites so there is no way to track who is more likely to share fake news than someone else. perhaps an algorithm is put in place where people who are statistically more likely to spread fake news such as the 65+ generation are shown far less articles on their news feed to not prevent as that would be impossible but to contain or limit the amount of fake news that is spread across social media every day.
Articles I used:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2224326-people-share-fake-news-online-even-when-they-can-tell-its-not-true/
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/12/social-media-giants-are-fighting-coronavirus-fake-news-its-still-spreading-like-wildfire-127038
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/9/18174631/old-people-fake-news-facebook-share-nyu-princeton