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There is a much larger problem here than RTs, and that is lack of journalistic integrity. You can spread pretty much any sort of information without research o

There is a much larger problem here than RTs, and that is lack of journalistic integrity. You can spread pretty much any sort of information without research or even a logical basis. Weirdly, we tend to default to accepting it as valid rather than questioning it. The only realistic cure for this, outside of draconian authority, is to teach people how to be more skeptical and educate them on logical fallacies. These are things that should be taught from elementary school and onwards IMHO.

ben509 7y ago
Knowledge of fallacies doesn't help with the tendency of outlets to bury stories they don't like, so it's not a silver bullet. But it would help. I think you need to build the tools in such a way that education becomes intrinsic to using them. If there were the ability to mark posts or tweets such that you can see "does not follow" or "citation needed" on the specific phrases that would help. Assuming you can do this in such a way that it isn't used to spam.
smogcutter 7y ago
So I don't remember this well enough to find a link, but some time ago there was a viral clip of someone tripping on the subway steps in NY. They drop all their stuff, look like a dork, everyone's fine, whatever. But then someone takes a longer look at security camera footage from the station (or someone independent sets up a camera, I forget), and finds that lots of people trip on that particular step. Turns out it's slightly taller than the others, so it's easy to catch your foot on it. One possible solution is to convince everyone individually to pay really close attention to their feet all the time. Or you could fix the steps. No one had to go around and convince people to be shitty to each other on the internet. A structural change made it easier and more rewarding, and our dumb monkey brains went wild. If your solution is to change the dumb monkey brain part and not the structural part, you're gonna have a bad time.

ben509 7y ago

Knowledge of fallacies doesn't help with the tendency of outlets to bury stories they don't like, so it's not a silver bullet. But it would help. I think you need to build the tools in such a way that education becomes intrinsic to using them. If there were the ability to mark posts or tweets such that you can see "does not follow" or "citation needed" on the specific phrases that would help. Assuming you can do this in such a way that it isn't used to spam.

smogcutter 7y ago

So I don't remember this well enough to find a link, but some time ago there was a viral clip of someone tripping on the subway steps in NY. They drop all their stuff, look like a dork, everyone's fine, whatever. But then someone takes a longer look at security camera footage from the station (or someone independent sets up a camera, I forget), and finds that lots of people trip on that particular step. Turns out it's slightly taller than the others, so it's easy to catch your foot on it. One possible solution is to convince everyone individually to pay really close attention to their feet all the time. Or you could fix the steps. No one had to go around and convince people to be shitty to each other on the internet. A structural change made it easier and more rewarding, and our dumb monkey brains went wild. If your solution is to change the dumb monkey brain part and not the structural part, you're gonna have a bad time.