Coming out of CES there was a lot of news, but the piece of news I found most surprising for the industry was the announcement that Meta would be shuttering its fact-checking team in favour of community-driven methods.
I am admittedly split on social media. On one side of things, I realise its value in enabling and maintaining connections between people. On the flipside, social media seems to be at the core of most conflict, negativity and mental health issues affecting our lives daily.
When people use social media as their primary news source, they are shutting out opposing points of view, and now they are relying on sources that are not fact-checked across most any platform, with Meta adopting the same basic model as X.
Not a good move
For the most part, the industry reported this as a statement of fact rather than editorialising on it. I expected hand-wringing and finger-pointing.
I don’t think this is a good move for social media, but I do understand the business reason for Meta’s making this change.
All that being said, the Meta move opens the door for a different conversation, one that’s important for all of us to participate in — especially if you are a parent of a child who uses social media. We all need a discussion about critical thinking.
Critical thinking is not really taught in schools, although it should be. Young minds need to know that critical thinking is an important skill that will help them in every aspect of their lives.
Consider the source, always
Critical thinking is not cynicism. It is simply based on a single idea: Consider the source. When you read news of any kind, or when you read about products or ideas, you should always consider the source.
First, where was this POV or news item originating, and is that source reputable?
Second, can you confirm that POV or item from a secondary source? Third, is that source considered biased in some manner? Fourth, and probably most importantly, can you ask questions and get straight answers about that topic?
These are important steps, and since social media is so easily accessible, and influenced — and no longer self-policed — you must be able to employ your own critical thinking to know what’s correct.
Now if you made it this far, you are probably of the opinion that this is an article about politics. Nope, I don’t care about yours or anyone else’s politics. You can and should employ everything I am saying about political points of view, but I am more focused on the immediate world around me as a parent.
We need critical thinkers
If you have a teenager, you’ve likely heard about things like beef tallow as a skin care product or chewing gum as a tool to create a more well-defined jawline. These are relatively benign ideas, but if you ask a doctor or dermatologist, they will steer you away from them.
Social media is filled with far more more ridiculous claims and POVs that can be very dangerous to a young mind and psyche.
Critical thinking is important because these kids are the future of everything. They will rely on a medium we created, one which has ruined much of their ability to think on their own. Since we literally made this mess, it’s on us to clean it up.
Social media companies can do whatever they want when it comes to fact-checking. It’s on us to make sure we are not relying on an unreliable source for information. We need to be the fact-checkers. We need to be the critical thinkers.
It’s on each of us to do our part. Maybe then, things will turn out okay.
This story was first published by MediaPost.com and is republished with the permission of the author.
Cory Treffiletti is chief marketing officer at generative AI-powered product placement platform, Rembrand. He was previously SVP at FIS. He has been a thought leader, executive and business driver in the digital media landscape since 1994. In addition to authoring a weekly column on digital media, advertising and marketing since 2000 for MediaPost‘s Online Spin, Treffiletti has been a successful executive, media expert and/or founding team member for a number of companies, and published a book, Internet Ad Pioneers, in 2012.
