Social Media Robots

Social media has taken over almost every part of our lives. The latest news can be found on social media. We received the play by play of the latest breaking news, and experience the changes in the news as statements are retracted or further explained. As we navigate through the vast amounts of information that is available via social media, we cannot be social media robots.

Social media robots are people who believe whatever they see or read on social media without vetting the information. There are a few obvious signs of a social media robot:

1. Posting without reading what you are posting. So many post out dated articles or articles from satire sites and don’t let their their followers know the information is outdated or satire.

2. Comment on the post of others without reading the article the person has posted. How can you debate efficiently by only reading a headline? It’s similar to saying you don’t like Beyoncé’s music, but you’ve never listened to one song!

3. A firm believer in conspiracy theories. A popular conspiracy theory is that Bill Cosby was framed because he was trying to buy NBC. Here’s the link to the first article from 1992 that mentioned Cosby was interested in buying NBC

The article mentions that GE said NBC was not for sale.

Cosby expressed interest again in 1993 and was told once again NBC was not for sale. Fast forward over twenty years later and some want to tie Cosby’s sexual harassment allegations to being a product of him wanting to by NBC 😳😳😳. Cosby admitted to drugging women. The reason he is in jail today is because of the wrong he admitted doing.

There are other obvious signs of being a social media robot, but the ones mentioned above made the top of my list.

God created us with a wonderful thing called a brain. We must use it. We should refuse to blindly believe the information that is pushed on us. We must choose to be critical thinkers.

Critical thinkers use research and analysis to evaluate information and form their own opinion. I get it – being a critical thinker requires work. In our microwave culture, so many want someone else to be the critical thinker and then tell them what to believe or who to support. This mindset is dangerous and leads to being a social media robot.