Social Media’s Play on Fact vs. Opinion
Social media opens a wide platform for people to share their opinions with the entire world. They can also share facts but that doesn’t mean those facts are accurate. The use of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter allows people to disguise their opinions as facts especially on controversial topics like politics. It is easy to determine fact vs opinion but social media isn’t about digging deep many people either choose to believe or not believe what they read usually based on their own opinion on the topic.
This tweet from OREO Cookie is an opinion however they are trying to phrase it as a fact and even adding that no one disagrees with it to give the illusion that it can’t be proven wrong. People can post whatever they want online no matter if it's accurate or not.
There are many instances when people feel so strongly about their opinion that they try to convince people its not an opinion its a fact. The huge ongoing debate over whether pineapple belongs on pizza is one of those instances and with the help of social media this debate has grown very popular.
Just because you see it online doesn’t mean its true! Wikipedia allows anyone to post and its portrays the information as facts, sometimes the facts are right but sometimes people can get stuff wrong. The same goes for when people post their opinions, often opinions are based off things they beleive are facts but what if those facts are inaacurracte, then your view on the issue may be swayed when learning the accurate information.
Just because something is backed up with evidence doesn’t necessarily make it a fact. Opinions can be backed up with evidence but often times facts that go against the opinion are excluded, doing this makes it seem accrate when in reality you aren’t getitng to see the whole picture.
When information is coming from a powerful person it is easy to assume what they say is true. For example, while Trump was in office he used Twitter constantly. Many tweets seems like they were facts becuase of why would the president lie but often times they were his opinion on what happened rather than an actual fact.
The way opinions can be disguised as facts over social media can sway peoples viewpoints. A study was done to see how much of the US population is actually swayed but what they see online.
Social media swaying peoples opinions can be dangerous when the thing swaying them may be based on someone elses opinion ratehr than a fact.
Twitter has noticed a trend of misleading information and is currently begining to make tools that will help prevent false information from being shared.
Overall, social media has made it easier for people around the world to share their opinions and sometimes try to make them seem like facts. Social media allows people to portray whatever information they want & however they want which makes it esier for fake or inaccurate information to be shared worldwide.
