Gullibility or Laziness

While the majority of the populous is still reeling from the outcome of the presidential election, a somewhat startling statistic has emerged from this circus.

The Pew Research Center’s latest study of news use on the internet indicated that 62% of the adults in the U.S. get their news from social media; not on-line newspapers or TV.  Not surprisingly, Pew also reported that Facebook emerged as the largest source of false news among the social media groups. 

I can’t quite figure out whether this recent revelation is due to an increase in the gullibility of our population or just outright laziness.

A further analysis of the use of social media in supplying information during the recent presidential campaign indicated that, while 38% of the information posted and shared by the Republican campaign was incorrect, Democrats also rose to the occasion with 19% of incorrect information.

Two recent examples of the distortion of news reporting by social media include the Facebook item that Trump is leading in the popular vote and that Donald Trump had convinced Ford Motor Company to closed its heavy duty truck production in Mexico and bring it back to the U.S.  Both of these reportings have been shared by thousands on Facebook and are blatantly false.  Clinton is leading in the popular vote by almost one million, and CNN reported in August, 2015, that Ford had made the decision to close its Mexico plant and return heavy truck production to the U.S.   It happened under Obama’s watch.

Apparently, the extent of social media falsehoods leading up to election day became so widespread that it led to Oxford dictionary’s recent selection of “post-truth” as its word of the year.  It was often used in the phrase “post-truth politics,” and means “belonging to a time in which truth has become irrelevant.”

Hopefully, Americans will get a grip, stop being stupid, curb their social media addiction and stop using it to get their news.  If not, they will be easy prey for any type of blissful ignorance which their chosen leaders have decided to create for them.