Many of us enjoy sharing news and stories with our friends on social media. It may be a fascinating story, information about a celebrity we admire, or something that made us LOL. But when you see something interesting online, do you double-check to make sure that it is true? Not everything we read or see on the internet is veracious, and if we share it when it is not, we might be convincing more people that it actually is. So, follow these habits to boost your news literacy and become a better contributor to the public discourse.
Set aside personal biases
Personal biases, if left unchecked, will cause you to interpret, favor, and remember information to confirm your preexisting beliefs (confirmation bias) and fail to recall where, when, or how you learned something, even if you remember the facts.
These make you vulnerable to bad actors attempting to influence public opinion. Finally, your biases will lead you to wishful thinking, which is defined as a strong desire for something to be true that is used in place of/or as evidence of the truthfulness of the claim.
