Is social media a reliable source for obtaining credible information at times? I say, yes, and no, and it depends on what kind of information you are seeking. It can be a very reliable source of information on the events and happenings in the lives of those I care about. When news breaks, or even while watching a TV broadcast such as the Oscars or the Tonys, it can serve as a general gauge of what my friends and family think, how they are reacting, what they believe about what they are seeing and hearing. It can also be a deceptive sales pitch of appearances, much as that AOL newsfeed ad was, meant to convince and persuade and skew. Most all of us are guilty of trying to perform a bit of a facelift on our lives in a public fashion via social media. I wonder sometimes who we are trying to convince more, our friends or ourselves.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
How Do I Really Know What I Know?
How do I really know what I know? Good question. I read today this heading on the news feed of my AOL homepage: "Joint Relief Without Glucosamine; How can this new ingredient relieve joints in 7 days? See why it's flying off shelves". Being someone who has been running, jumping and rolling around on Disney streets for a decade, I have back and joint issues from time to time. It's a hazard of the trade. The nature of the best. But this caught my attention and my first thought was "Oh, here's a news article talking about something that interests me. There's useful information I can use." Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that it was an advertisement. Though it slid across my feed, peppered in among the news articles, it took a second glance to realize I had just been duped. This wasn't even a particularly artful attempt to make a sales pitch look like news, but it still fooled me for a moment, much to my chagrin.
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Hi Lynne, I hate how sneaky those advertisements can be! I have been fooled by them as well. Yahoo.com has the same things, I noticed that in small writing in the bottom of the ad it says "sponsored." I agree that social media can be a reliable source but it depends on what information people are looking for.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynne, I agree that social media can be a very reliable source of information in regards to the happenings in the lives of those we care about. I actually talk about the same thing in my blog post — how social media connects us to our family/friends, allowing us to share life's special moments from near and far.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynne, I see advertisements like that on a daily basis on Facebook and they are usually something about a pill that you can take to create mass amounts of muscle and lose weight like the celebrities and look like the model in the picture of the ad. I always find them amusing and sometimes click on them just to see how outrageous they really are. I have yet to see one that really peaked my interest as this one did for you, but I am almost certain that if I come across one like that, I will click on it to see if it is real. The good thing about advertisements is without them we wouldn't have social media and without social media we wouldn't be able to connect with our friends and families so easily. Just wanted to say that I really put some thought into the last few sentences that you wrote and am having a hard time determining who I try to impress on social media with my standing, me or everyone else. I think you propose a great question that could lead to some interesting discussion. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Lynne,
ReplyDeleteI too am guilty of falling for advertisements in disguise, and it can definitely be frustrating! Social media is a great way to stay updated on the lives of friends and family, I think that’s why I use it so often. I regularly use social media to discover news articles that I am interested in, and I think it serves as a great way to find and share new stories and to be able to share them with friends and family as well!
Thanks Lynne
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