The Misinfopedia
Did Obama curse out Trump on video? Do we live in different worlds? Who makes money from our social media addiction? Can we tell people from bots? Is fake news destroying society?
The Misinfopedia are informational articles by MS Digital Literacy students at Springfield Renaissance. Topics were drawn from the documentary Trust Me, free to watch on Kanopy.
One goal of this research project was to learn to write formally and objectively. Articles should not address the reader ("you, your"), refer to the author ("I, my"), or be conversational ("So, Well,").
Also, the authors are not experts, so any information should be linked to an expert or otherwise valid source. At this level, students were expected to link to a source at the end of each paragraph, although linking specific quotes or facts was encouraged.
Anonymous Messaging
Anonymous messaging apps create problems, from making user uncomfortable to, in worst-case scenarios, pushing them to suicide. They are dangerous because the victim won't know who they are talking to unless they talk in a tone that the victim recognizes.
Bots and Humans
Bots are programs that people create to do specific jobs, acting like users, on social media platforms. Some bots are helpful, and some are harmful. It depends on what the creator of the bot has created the bot to do and what jobs/tasks the bot is meant to perform.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is when we filter what we see based on what we assume. Expectations about who is bad and who is good are part of how society functions. But Confirmation bias can make people automatically believe misinformation on the internet without looking carefully at it.
Cyberbullying
Bullying and Cyberbullying can affect everyone—those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. The student can feel anxious. The student can feel depressed. A student may feel suicidal because they feel like it's never going to end.
Sometimes this can make the student feel mentally ill or very sick because they get worried so much. They also feel lonely because nobody is helping them. Kids who are bullies are more likely to engage in violent actions and behaviors into adulthood.
Deep Fakes
Deep fakes are edited videos or images in which a person from an existing image or video is replaced with someone else. Deep fakes are a form of misinformation that are often used with other forms. They have caused many changes on the internet and in real life.
Election Interference
Most people think that election problems happen in in partly-free countries like India, Mexico, Nigeria, and Brazil. However, “informational” affects, where people don’t know how to vote, or why to vote for whom, happen all over, including in the United States.
Medical Misinfo
There is a lot of medical misinformation out there on the internet, and some of it is weight loss frauds. Many humans are too lazy to go out and do exercise. Instead, they believe in miracle cures, thinking that some pills will help them lose weight.
Misinfo and Society
Statistics show that false information spreads faster during times of panic and crisis. For example, take the increase in fake health articles during the peak of quarantine, or the amount of election fraud articles during November and December of 2021.
However, there is one secret, manipulative trick. The majority of social platforms, such as Facebook, know that the mis/disinformation is false, and they continue to reshare it so that the platform gains more traffic. This might be awful for consumers, but it’s perfect for those companies.
Perception And Reality
Politicians, philosophers, and scientists all know there is a gap between our perception and reality: between what we see, and what is truly happening. This gap means that we don’t understand things fully and could be easily confused in situations where we rely on our perception and not on our understanding of reality.
This gap is bringing the United States close to a civil war, according to Vox. People are buying guns to protect themselves from others, all because they watch different news stations and/or have a difference of opinion.