The struggles of Social media
Social media has been a huge Part of our lives in both positive and negative ways. We have been working across the U.S and other countries to try to reduce the spread of misinformation online since it negatively affects everybody. Misinformation being spread has the power to create false narratives and mislead people to believe many different things, that’s why we are trying to raise awareness about these issues and getting these famous social media platforms such as Instagram, twitter, and Facebook to fix this problem. Productive strategies towards solving this issue includes fixing the newsfeed algorithms and tweaking of the social media platforms. With these 2 main strategies we can guarantee that misinformation won’t be as common and there will be more verification of the information that’s put out there.
Valuable Problem Solvers
Solutions and strategies to help us, have to be rapid and productive such as fixing the newsfeed algorithms and tweaking the social media platforms as mentioned before. When trying to fix the newsfeed algorithm what developers need to focus on is that what pops up isn’t the most popular but most factual information. Then, us users how we can contribute is by minimizing the times we click on a random headline since the more we click on it the popularity increases more and more. Also something that most people don't pay attention to are the recommendation engines incorporated into these platforms, these engines are crucial in the spreading of fake news since they give each user what appeals to them and not the facts. Therefore “trust” indicators are a feature that needs to be developed so the public can know what is and what’s not trustworthy. The hiring of an editorial team would help too because their job would be to remove the misinformation spotted from the trending search engines.
This Problem has to be constantly monitored
A collective effort is required if we want to win this battle. Each and everyone of us has a role that must be played correctly, whether that role be in working with these social media platforms or spreading awareness about reducing the amount of fake news being put out there. Communication is key, everybody needs to be able to let others know when misinformation is spotted or when it’s bound to happen. We must each share a piece of the pie in order to accomplish our goal of not letting social media dictate if false information should be provided to the public. If you really think about it misinformation is the equivalent of a crime, Since you’re lying on behalf of anything and it could put anyone at risk. The better understanding of everyone’s information environment, the more knowledgeable we become and that can help prevent many things from happening.
