Social media has become an obsession with many people. There are more and more social media apps on the internet and it is becoming not only a social force, but a source of influence, both good and bad.
With this being a big election year, the rhetoric, donation appeals and misinformation campaigns are in full display.
If you’ve been on Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly been inundated by ads from political candidates asking you to join their team or chip in a few dollars.
Political campaigns spend millions of dollars to reach people on social media, especially Facebook. They share memes, videos and other posts to boost their candidates and disparage opponents.
But just because an ad or post appears real does not necessarily mean its message is true. Facebook has said it will not fact-check political ads, a decision that has been criticized in light of how false information is deliberately spread to sway opinion or obscure the truth.
Because of Facebook’s posture on political ads, voters should know how to separate the fake from the real to avoid being tricked.
“We’ve seen a real progression of the use of false information on social media since 2016,” says Samuel Woolley, project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s especially true on Facebook, he notes, where campaigns or political groups across the ideological spectrum can deploy disinformation or provocative content to “try to get people to do what they want.”
Older Americans, who are not digital natives who grew up using social media, are primary targets for this. It’s an effective tool where they can be manipulated with bad information.
Facebook is the social platform that older Americans use most often. Indeed, far more of those age 50-plus use Facebook than Instagram or Twitter, a Pew Research poll found last year.
Americans ages 50-plus are the fastest-growing segment of Facebook users, according to Gallup. In 2018, 52 percent of people ages 50 to 64 reported having a Facebook account, up from 34 percent in 2011. Among those 65 and older, 32 percent said they had a Facebook account, up from 18 percent in 2011.
Facebook is the social platform that older Americans use most often. According to a recent poll, 68 percent of respondents ages 50 to 64 used Facebook, 17 percent used Twitter, and 23 percent used Instagram. Less than 10 percent used Twitter, which has announced it will not accept political ads.
Photos or videos can be manipulated and used out of context to mislead. “Don’t rely on that to make your decisions,” says Ann Ravel, director of the Digital Deception Solutions project at MapLight, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that tracks money in politics.
The internet plays on people’s emotions, Ravel says. If an ad or post makes you feel fear, anger or disgust, that could be a warning sign of misinformation.
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