​

Being manipulated when navigating on social media seems like something rather unlikely to happen, or at least thats what most of you guys think. The truth is that manipulating someone on social media is actually very easy, that’s why you all need to avoid it. As we can see in the article of the American Prospect written by Robert Kuttner, he exposes the truth about President Trump’s trade deal with Mexico and Canada. There are many ways to do this, such as interacting with people face to face, checking your sources, not believing everything you see on the internet, and many others. 

 

Linked with manipulating while navigating on social media comes fake news, which are deliberate lies spread via print or online social media. When a piece of misinformation from a mistaken source behind to appear in other reliable sources, to make it seem real and true is called circular reporting, and this also goes with social media manipulation and fake news. Another thing that you guys need to be careful about are deep fakes. These an ed very deceiving because they are computer generated videos that are designed to look real, and these allow people to impersonate others. 

 

Here are a couple of tips of how you can avoid fake news and being manipulated while you are navigating through social media: Consider the source, ask yourself if what you are reading or watching is a joke. If it is, then it is most probably fake. Also consider the headline and check the dates. Always beware of click baits because these only want to attract your attention so you clock a link to a particular web page and gain views so that way, more people will visit the page. Click baits are almost always headings on fake news pages. You should also stay calm and if you are not sure if a site or if some information is real or not, go to fact checking sites, such as https://www.snopes.com. If not useful you could read the article by Harvard Summer at https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story. 

 

By following all of these steps closely you should definitely not fall into any fake news, deep fakes or into being manipulated while you are navigating on social media. As you have noticed, social media is not as friendly as it seems. You need to be very careful while navigating in it and be aware of all of the things that can make you believe lies and stuff that is not true. 

 

Even though it is not very friendly it still has many benefits such as communication, reaching large audiences, and getting the answers to questions in a much faster way, if they are accurate and true… Stay true to your knowledge and trust your instincts. Follow everything written above and social media should be a safe place for you to navigate through. 

​

​

​

Kuttner, R. (2020, 15 enero). Fake News: Trump's Trade Deals. Recuperado 3 febrero, 2020, de https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/fake-news-trumps-trade-deals/

 

 Harvard Summer School. (s.f.).  https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story.