Facebook may make you go blind, say experts

Today, experts have confirmed that using Facebook may make you go blind. Forever.

Only, of course, that isn’t true. Not even a little bit.

So why, of all the websites in the world, have we used a nonsense headline (the irony is not lost on us) for this article?

Because, according to a study by computer scientists at Colombia University recently, a staggering 59% of people will NOT actually read an article before they interact with it (i.e. share it) on social media. Yes, this means that the majority of people who share articles online have probably only given the social media headline a read before passing the article on to their friends.

They’ve evaluated, surmised and shared the article based on only the headline.

To online hoax debunkers like us, this is not surprising news. Not only do we see people commenting on our posts almost every day from people who seemingly have not read our articles, but the rise in “satirical” articles from websites churning out fake news in bulk that are mistaken for genuine news is on the rise too. Simply because these articles are being blindly shared. And most of them could have been easily dismissed with a quick critical read of the article substance.

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This also accounts for the dramatic rise of “clickbait” headlines deliberately designed to mislead, much like the headline we’ve used for this article. Headlines are the most important aspect of whether someone will either click or share an article on social media, and a headline designed for sharing will always circulate more prolifically across the Internet, even if it is deceptive – simply because many people don’t read the articles to find out.

It’s essentially a reflection of the state of instant gratification that both the Internet and social media have provided us. We want our news, information and boredom fix instantly. So instant, it seems, we don’t even spend our time digesting it. We no longer absorb information, we just pass it along like mindless drones, skimming headlines and thus inevitably drawing incorrect conclusions.

Something that will likely have worrying consequences in the political sphere. If we shape our political assumptions on twelve-word headlines, the ramifications in the world of politics could be perturbing.

“People are more willing to share an article than read it” said the co-author of the Colombia University study, Arnaud Legout “This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or a summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper.”

Is this trend irreversible? How many times do we need to get stung by the Internet cesspool of misinformation before we take responsibility for our own social media sharing? Let us know your thoughts below.