Letter 21: Facts or rumors?
Facts or rumors?
My friend saw a passage online last week about telling people to not use tissue paper because the talcum powder inside the tissue might cause cancer, so I called the tissue company and the company said that the chemical is only used in napkin, and there is only a little chance to get a cancer if people use too much talcum powder in their genital region. From that time I knew as a media receiver, it is important distinguish the news whether it is true or just rumors.
To be honest, the last time I learned of breaking news is not from reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee in hand, it is while scrolling through my social media feed while lying in bed. But nowadays these social media sites are exploded with false news, for an example, during the United States’ presidential election, there were thirty-eight percent of news on the republican-leaning Facebook pages are partly or complete false, and the democrat-leaning pages are nineteen percent, and these sites can warp people’s view very fast.
On the occasion of information explosion, I believe that having appropriate attitudes while using media platforms is important, and also the ability to tell the truth from the false.
Jack,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I would believe the stories about talcum (talc) powder. That's been the major ingerdient in baby powder for years, and women use it a lot also. All of the stories about "causing cancer" just suddenly appeared.
If you have learned to not trust social media, you have learned an important lesson. I have never spent that much time with social media, so I didn't realize what a problem it had become. For my important news stories, I always try to check two or three usually reliable sources.
Tim