Think Before You Post!

I don't care what your politics are or whether you are conservative or liberal - check the story before you repost it on Facebook! Over that past three days I've seen otherwise reasonably intelligent people share posts that they got elsewhere that are easily checked and have been found to be false.

One recent story claims that Fox News is reporting that children of members of Congress get their student loans forgiven. Apparently, because the story says that a news agency reported it, that part "must" be true. Except that Fox News never reported it, and Politifact and the Annenberg Public Policy Center found the statement itself to be false. Families of those in Congress are eligible for the exact same student loan programs that you and I are eligible for.

The other post that keeps coming around is some child with cancer who will receive a donation based on number of reposts and likes. Snopes.com shows the photos and debunks the story. Snopes.com is a pretty easy way to check on Facebook stories that are not political, and see if they are hoaxes.

We, and our students, need to start double checking our facts. We expect students to cross-reference information when they do research in high school; let's help them make that a transferable skill. We don't want another generation that posts everything that matches their politics whether it's even remotely true or not, nor do we want another generation that forwards emails to everyone they know about how onions cure the common cold and then become toxic! As we talk about digital footprint with our kids, let's talk about the concept that re-posting biased and untrue information reduces your credibility factor, and that fact-checking is a responsible part of living in a democracy.

Image credit: By User:Husky (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons