Lateral Reading

Here’s an in for 2024 – Media Literacy.

This year is going to be crazy.
AI is rapidly advancing; conspiracy theories are becoming more and more mainstream.
Not to mention, it’s a presidential election year.
[music]

So can we please make fact-checking the vibe for 2024?
Also because it’s really easy.

I work in news and media literacy and here are some of the simplest things you can start doing while you’re scrolling right now.

First thing is just checking your emotions. Misinformation is designed to get a reaction out of people, a lot of the claims are simply rage bait.
You can essentially pull any sad, scary image from the internet, pair it with an out-of-context piece of information, use emotional language and people react to it out of impulse.

Next, I always take a closer look at the source.
Are they an expert? Or are they just someone with a hot take?
And I love a good hot take, there are a lot of really smart people on the internet making informational content.

It comes down to what is the evidence they’re supplying you with.
If someone is just saying things with confidence without citing a single reputable source, no thank you not in 2024.

And, you might not like it, you just have to slow down.
We have to break that habit of constanrly scrolling and accepting information that feels true.

So take that quick pause to plug some keywords into a search engine, read multiple sources, spend the 30 seconds it takes to do reverse image research.

Because misinformation is out.