Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted March 21, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 21, 2017 An interesting theory: Walter Quattrociocchi, "Inside the Echo Chamber," Scientific American. March, 2017, Pages 60 - 63. Quote . . the Web has helped create an echo chamber where misinformation thrives. Indeed, the viral spread of hoaxes, conspiracy theories , and other false or baseless information online is one of the most disturbing social trends of the early 21st century. . . . [Social Scientists] have established that users happily embrace false information as long as it reinforces their preexisting beliefs.. . . people of all educational levels choose to believe compact--but false-- explanations that clearly identify an object of blame. Unfortunately, attempts to debunk false beliefs seem only to reinforce them. stopping the spread of misinformation is thus a problem with no apparent simple solutions. Quote Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted March 21, 2017 Author Moderators Share Posted March 21, 2017 More from the above article: Quote Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but in an age of rampant populism and digital activism, they have acquired new power to influence real-world events--usually for the worse. . . . People are surprisingly bad at distinguishing credible information from hoaxes. and Quote When we investigated 4,709 [Facebook] posts that satirized conspiracy theories (Example: "Airplane chemtrails [sic.] contain Viagra") we found that consumers of "real" conspiracy news were much more likely to read these satirical pieces than readers of legitimate science news. Quote Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outta Here Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 UGH. Let's bring that up again! (See you in a couple of weeks.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted March 21, 2017 Author Moderators Share Posted March 21, 2017 You have a point. So, I have deleted my last sentence in the post above. Quote Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Jeannieb43 Posted March 21, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 21, 2017 Now that I'm living in a "senior living community" I'm finding that many, many people get their "news" from Facebook!! [I myself will never use Facebook. Too easy to have your identity stolen.] But so many people these days seem to value Facebook, for one reason or another. To me, it seems obvious -- just rumors and more rumors abound on social media. Quote Jeannie<br /><br /><br />...Change is inevitable; growth is optional.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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