Rant - Why do people believe stuff from social media

↑ ora_43 ↓

Wed, Jan 12 2022, 5:41 pm

amother [ Gardenia ] wrote:

I find that people assume if I’m questioning media I’m also believing random shares with no source. Which isn’t true I question everything and anything. I also don’t forward shares I have discussions about why I believe or don’t believe things.

But OP is talking about a situation where she knows someone is believing random stuff with no source. She's not just assuming that because her SIL questions the media she must believe other things unquestioningly, she's seeing it happen.

And don't we all know people like that? There are people who are unaware of how the news spins its stories, and of what they leave out - and there are people unaware of how easy it is to share convincing lies on whatsapp.

I question the media and I haven't had an issue with people assuming I believe random nonsense. To be fair, it's possible they think I believe random nonsense, but just don't have the energy to argue about it... But in general, I think that if you explain what parts you suspect and why, most people take it well.

Like, if you just say "you can't trust the mainstream media" they think "ooh, potential woo-woo homeopathy type, best avoid,"

and if you say "fake news" they think you're a rabid Trump fan,

but if you say, eg, "the media is very limited in what they can safely share from certain parts of the world, but they don't like to admit that. So instead they present a very distorted picture as if it's the full, accurate picture," very few people will disagree.

(again, potentially because they're thinking I sound exhausting to argue with. but I don't think it's only that.)

↑ ora_43

Wed, Jan 12 2022, 5:50 pm

As to OP's question -

why would anyone believe this stuff?

If a piece of information fits neatly into what you believe to be true, you tend not to question it. That's true for all of us, about pretty much any subject. If someone tells me it's going to rain tomorrow, I'll believe them, if someone tells me there's going to be a flood warning I'll double check, and if they say there's going to be a hurricane (here in Israel), I'll assume they're making things up.

It's actually a pretty smart system in a way. Nobody can afford to double-check everything, so we reserve our double-checking for things that are on the border of what we believe to be true. Potentially true, but a bit of a stretch.

Problem is, once a bit of misinformation gets in, it's just going to get reinforced. Because now that sounds true, to the point where you no longer question information that reinforces its truth.

If you get too far to the extremes, the truth sounds so obviously false that it's rejected automatically.