Anti-Social Media ~ Light-speed Lies

Greetings Dear Reader,

We have all seen it.  The story of a celebrity death pops up on our social feed.  We express our sorrow at the loss.  Then we find out it is a hoax.  I have been fooled by this.

In the news of late we have found that some professional journalists have abandoned their integrity.  They have coloured, flavored, or in some cases fabricated “reports” to influence political or social positions.  Stories of the negative spread so quickly in our feeds and we believe them without verification.

Terms like “alternative facts” and “somewhat verified” are used to excuse poor journalism and outright lies.  It used to be that journalists and news people were taught to have evidence and verification of their stories.  This grew out of the abuses of print media in the eighteenth century.

Now we can post a lie and it can travel the world at light-speed.  We can turn a spark of rumor into a raging fire of anger and accusation just by typing a few lines and clicking “post”.  Lies become the truth because they scroll through your feed unfettered and unverified.  People repeat and re-post the lie until we all think it is true.

I must verify.  I must not think that something is true just because I read it on my social feed.  The tools are available to me to do the research and learn the truth.  It is my obligation to have integrity in all that I read and write.  It is my duty to put forth only the truth.  I cannot follow Christ properly without filtering out the lies, even when they are told by my allies.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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