Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Stop. Just Stop.

I can't take it anymore. I have had it up to here (I'm waving my hand WAY above my head.) and I absolutely MUST say something....
STOP SHARING SHIT ONLINE IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE THE PROPER RESEARCH! 
No seriously.... stop it. You are only making yourself look stupid, and propagating fear mongering. 
Anything, and I mean ANYTHING can be found online if you look hard enough. That means that if I felt like it, I could find an argument for smoking cigarettes to CURE cancer. That doesn't make it valid or true. 
In this day and age, we are far too quick to hit the "share" button. We rarely take the time to figure out if what we are sharing is of any value whatsoever, let alone if it is even true. And don't even get me started on the people who clearly do not understand satire. Nothing you read in The Onion is true, people. 
We have to stop. We are creating a world filled with ignorance and fear, and it isn't helping anyone. All this does is encourage trolls and drama starters to write articles intended to spread discontent and stir the shit pot in order to garner attention. 
I recently saw a photo show up MULTIPLE times in my Facebook newsfeed about Halloween landing on Friday the 13th for the first time in 666 years or some shit. Now... I don't want to make anyone feel bad or stupid, but COME ON, PEOPLE.... Stop for a second and think it through. When is Halloween? It is the same day every single year. It is on October 31st. That means it could never, ever, EVER land on a Friday the 13th. We know this, yet many, many people shared that photo. Why? Because we are sharing without thinking, that's why. We see some colorful quote or catchy titled article and we feel compelled to share it. But should we? While some things are certainly worth sharing, many others are not. We need to start doing a better job of filtering these things.
Now, I'm not a big proponent of sharing religious, political, or push button topics, but if that is your thing, for the love of everything holy, please make sure you have done the proper research before you share it. You may hate Obama, but that doesn't mean that photo of him stabbing unicorns is real. You get that, right?
And if you want to be the person who shares things like that, at the very least, you should be sure that what you are sharing is genuine and not just some false propaganda created to cause trouble. 

So.... from now on, let's all do our due diligence, and start weeding out things of value from general nonsense. Not only will this free up our newsfeeds for more worthwhile things, it will make the world a much happier place, and you won't find yourself sitting at your desk screaming at your computer screen and calling your friends and loved ones colorful names.
Thank you. This has been a public service announcement.



     This. SO much YES! 

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