ABOUT
WHAT IS HAKE NEWS & FOAXES?
This blog is an attempt to dispel fake news and hoaxes (see what I did with the blog name?) that are spread primarily through social media including Facebook and Whatsapp.
WHY THIS BLOG?
Because I'm well and truly fed up of trying to disprove the veracity of numerous viral images and videos I receive on a daily basis. And I'm also tired of replying to my well-meaning friends (and some geniuses who have since proved themselves to the contrary) who have blindly forwarded me stuff without realising the true nature of these seemingly harmless forwards.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH HARMLESS FORWARDS?
Apart from bad grammar and wrongly attributed videos, it bothers me that there is advertising income being made on images and videos that go viral. The more outrageous the video, the more views it gets. Like a beheading, floods etc. Sometimes, especially during a time of calamity, the headline or a descriptor is modified to fit a video and then circulated. You are paying for every video with your attention and time, and somebody is making money off it. And, I suspect, not paying any tax for it.
For a more geeky perspective, not written by me, read this.
SO WHAT?
Your attitudes and the concept of reality are based on your perception of the world around you. And one of the sources of your perception is the information you absorb from social media. (Admit it, you look at your whatsapp messages as soon as you wake up, don't you?)
What if that information was wrong?
Or it was intended to instigate certain emotions for monetary benefit or power?
The real danger is that these forwards are shaping our attitudes, perceptions and world view in subtle ways to show up the world as an unsafe place unless you hang out with your own homogeneous subcommunity or caste, region or religion, or political leanings.
It's a horrific fictionalising of our worst fears that can put even Stephen King or George R.R. Martin out of the bestseller business. And these messages, videos and images seem to me, mostly fiction that we're believing to be non-fiction, but worse, reality. And there are people making a business out of the absence of our collective common sense.
WHAT DOES THIS BLOG HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
I don't have a superpower to stop the flow of such stuff but hope that someday that what you read here can make you pause before you forward this kind of content that is not only fake but also damaging to the collective attitudes of society.
Start here.
This blog is an attempt to dispel fake news and hoaxes (see what I did with the blog name?) that are spread primarily through social media including Facebook and Whatsapp.
WHY THIS BLOG?
Because I'm well and truly fed up of trying to disprove the veracity of numerous viral images and videos I receive on a daily basis. And I'm also tired of replying to my well-meaning friends (and some geniuses who have since proved themselves to the contrary) who have blindly forwarded me stuff without realising the true nature of these seemingly harmless forwards.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH HARMLESS FORWARDS?
Apart from bad grammar and wrongly attributed videos, it bothers me that there is advertising income being made on images and videos that go viral. The more outrageous the video, the more views it gets. Like a beheading, floods etc. Sometimes, especially during a time of calamity, the headline or a descriptor is modified to fit a video and then circulated. You are paying for every video with your attention and time, and somebody is making money off it. And, I suspect, not paying any tax for it.
For a more geeky perspective, not written by me, read this.
SO WHAT?
Your attitudes and the concept of reality are based on your perception of the world around you. And one of the sources of your perception is the information you absorb from social media. (Admit it, you look at your whatsapp messages as soon as you wake up, don't you?)
What if that information was wrong?
Or it was intended to instigate certain emotions for monetary benefit or power?
The real danger is that these forwards are shaping our attitudes, perceptions and world view in subtle ways to show up the world as an unsafe place unless you hang out with your own homogeneous subcommunity or caste, region or religion, or political leanings.
It's a horrific fictionalising of our worst fears that can put even Stephen King or George R.R. Martin out of the bestseller business. And these messages, videos and images seem to me, mostly fiction that we're believing to be non-fiction, but worse, reality. And there are people making a business out of the absence of our collective common sense.
WHAT DOES THIS BLOG HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
I don't have a superpower to stop the flow of such stuff but hope that someday that what you read here can make you pause before you forward this kind of content that is not only fake but also damaging to the collective attitudes of society.
As Abraham Lincoln didn't say, "The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true."
Start here.
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