Social media is a sewer, isn’t it? There is so much misinformation posted that it’s difficult to know what to believe. We may have “trusted sources” , but even they will rush to publish a story without having all of the facts. People’s lives may be changed forever because.a few needed to be the first to print or broadcast.

Of course, depending on the story, these often create the outrage mob that we’re so used to seeing nowadays. I find those interesting simply because, based on nothing, maybe a rumor, or a quote out of context, people will rage for days.

Even when they’re shown to be wrong, many will still double down, deciding that if the original narrative is wrong, there must be another one out there to continue  their reason to spread hate. Yes, hate.  Of course people, at least in America, are mostly allowed to say what they want as long as it does not incite violence, or slander someone.

This is the problem the media have, when they jump on some outrage mob bandwagon and slander, even libel others without any evidence. Many in our media believe that the 1st Amendment is a blanket  protection for media, but it’s not.  The media often like to portray themselves as innocent bystanders, just reporting on events around the world and if that were true, they’d have a much higher level of trust than they do now.

With the advent of social media, it’s easy for anyone to post whtever they want, true or not.  Even though some of these companies have pledged to police their space to prevent any fake news from being posted, who’s the arbitor of what is fake or not? Should be trust the companies? I don’t think we should.

We’re all subject to being a part of the outrage mob – liberal or conservative. We should be more circumspect about what we consume on social media as well as what we post.