Think Before You Share

June 2014 — Tip of the Month

Most monthly tips I publish are objective tidbits of advice for all computer users. This one is personal.

In recent months, I have seen far too many of my friends share articles on Facebook with comments along the lines of, "Can you believe this?!" only to read the articles and find out they are satire or completely false. This causes two major problems: 1) it makes my friends look bad, and 2) it propagates false rumors.

I've seen friends on both sides of the political spectrum share articles with comments like, "This makes me sick." When I read some of these articles, it's clear the author is simply using satirical language to make a point. The same is true with articles regarding race and religion. I've even seen articles from The Onion posted as serious news by some of my unsuspecting friends.

Please, please, please do not share an article on Facebook after just reading the headline. Read the entire article if you are going to share it on Facebook for the world to see. Satirical pieces are becoming more common these days, perhaps because authors know they can get people riled up with catchy headlines.

Make sure an article says what you think it does before linking to it on your Facebook wall. And think before you post it. You'll do yourself and everyone else a favor.

- Per Christensson