Hello and welcome. It’s time for me to yap about some topics that have the possibility of making me upset.
I’d like to start by looking at the concept of “peer review.” I’m going to approach this with 100% honesty. I had pretty much 0 idea of what “peer review” meant other than being a reflection on a source’s general reliability. Knowing that there are groups of nerds volunteering to tell other nerds why their writing needs work for a myriad of topics is such a fantastic vision for my cultural head canon. On a more serious note, I never really considered what “peer review” meant. I’ve mostly just looked for that stamp to make sure that my sources were in check. Knowing how much of a process it is has made me respect those peer reviewed sources that much more.
Wikipedia, my beloved. I’ve used Wikipedia as a means to find baselines of information for about four years, so I’m happy to see it receive its proverbial flowers. For those that are unaware, Wikipedia isn’t completely unreliable. It can serve as a pretty respectable jumping off point for deeper dives into research topics. It shouldn’t be anyone’s end-all-be-all, but it shouldn’t be completely avoided either.
Alright, let’s move on to a much more divisive topic. Misinformation has become easier to produce than ever. If you can edit well, you can probably make a large section of the internet believe something that is either partially untrue or completely untrue. If you can write well, you can probably construe a quote to incite outrage, even if that quote is taken from a larger context. No one wants to be fooled, so the question “How do I not get duped?” becomes more important than anything. There are two pillars to remaining on the informational up-and-up. The first is patience. Yes, that’s right, patience is a virtue. Even in the age of information where everything is instantaneous. Be patient above all else. More information only becomes available with time. Do some breathing exercises, read a chapter or two from a book, or take a soothing nature walk while you wait. The second pillar is to find more coverage once it becomes available. Chances are that other news outlets will begin to report what the actual findings are. You just have to look.
Let’s talk about advertisements. They’re pretty much inescapable. They’re on YouTube before videos, in the middle of videos, after videos, and in the sponsorships taken on by content creators. They’re continuously pushed on streaming services where the price for ad free continues to rise. Unfortunately for everyone, they’re also in our news articles. The best way to remain unmarketed to is to stay vigilant when investigating web pages. If a piece of content is sponsored, it will have to disclose such. The little line of text that reads “sponsored content” will probably be well hidden, so make sure you check all the corners, and the tiny, tiny, text below the headline itself. There can also be a lack of author information, so if an article doesn’t loudly proclaim its creator, you might be staring down the barrel of an advertisement disguised as a piece of news.
The best piece of advice I can offer anyone who is regularly online is to remain vigilant. Letting your guard down in the current era of technology is a curse of rage and stupidity. Remember to consider your source’s credibility, look for more coverage, and make sure that your news isn’t an advertisement in disguise.
Until next time,
swan
Comments
3 responses to “Wait… It’s all ads?”
Hello!
Your post was such an enjoyable read! I love how you mention patience still being valuable, even in a time of instant-everything. It’s easy to forget that it’s okay (and sometimes very important) to wait for things, especially things that dwell on the internet. Staying vigilant, like you mentioned, and not letting your emotions run rampant is an important factor in not getting fooled by folks who want to mislead others. Speaking of! Those disguised advertisements were crazy to me. I understood from experience how bad the ads online had gotten, but it was still new information to me that advertisers were consciously and purposely creating “native” ads. Great post!
I completely forgot most of what we read in Verified so this was a great run down of everything. That being said, your personality and your thoughts on everything were so enjoyable, and I especially liked in the misinformation section that if you know how to edit you can fool a lot of people. You have this straightforward and honest thought process on how what we’re reading is really teaching us. The mention of patience in that same section is just a great piece of advice to provide because of the state of the internet and everything that is on it including those hidden ads. I want to jump back up in your post about peer review. I am so glad someone else didn’t really know what peer review consisted of. That was one of the few sections where I was like: oh, that’s interesting. Keep up the good work, and keep writing in this really fun way!
Wow, what a fun post! Not to echo what everyone else is saying in here, but seriously, how you write is super engaging. I would love to learn a skill like that. I clicked on your post and your intro sentence immediately hooked me. You know what, I AM curious about hearing you yap about topics that have the possibility of making you upset! Your advice about taking a break and being patient is quite good, and it’s something that I should personally practice a bit more of.
I have no disagreements with anything you’ve said, and I truly empathize with the idea of being trapped by ads. I’m tired of seeing them too, and finding out that they’re masquerading as articles is viscerally upsetting to me. I’m so tired, man.