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Eagle Carry: The Influence Of Social Media

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The rising popularity of social media has caused a fundamental change in how we share and consume information. Unfortunately, the non-professional nature of authorship on these sites has caused a disturbing rise in the spread of sensationalized, falsified, and methodically insufficient science. In this epidemic of pseudoscience, the social media goer must learn to question not just what they see, but its motives, methods, and limitations. The practice of skepticism has become a rarity in the online world, despite the power of the internet to quickly produce fact checks. For example, in the last year a video went viral in which an eagle flew off with a small child. A quick search of “How much can an eagle carry?” tells you that eagles can carry …show more content…

The most dangerous example is one we all know—the claim that autism is linked to vaccination. The study claiming this link was done with a sample of only 12 children, which were cherry picked by the author to get the results requested by their financial backers, a group of lawyers wanting to sue vaccine companies. Once pressured, the authors of this paper retracted their statement and revealed falsified data, and yet the vaccine-autism myth rages. Many states are now dropping below what the surgeon general has declared as safe rates of child vaccination. Who’s to blame for the spread of pseudoscience? While it is true that scientists generally strive to be impartial, political agendas and the lure of fame do occasionally leak through the cracks. Bad science inevitably gets out. Even good science gets skewed by the media (by ignoring the scope and limitations of a study, for example). For this reason, it is the responsibility of the reader to validate what they are seeing before believing it. Everyone has a duty to filter and validate the information being spread across social media. Below I …show more content…

good info Ken Diebel: reference for this? corporations should be questioned. The most trusted sources come from peer-reviewed scientific journals, as they have been checked and approved by several scientists in the field of interest. However, as stated above, this does not always automatically validate the source; continue on even if the news in question is published. Purpose. What is the source trying to tell you? Is it attempting to sway your opinion in any way? If so, be skeptical about the information it is presenting. Try to find sources that state facts without telling you how to feel about them (as found in most peer-reviewed journal articles). Value. What information does the research provide? Does the author have a stance? Who benefits from the results? Check who is funding the research, and investigate whether or not they have anything to gain from the findings. For example, a study about the ease of oil spill cleanup funded by a big oil company should questioned. Limitations. What is the scope of the study? Can it claim causation? Here we get into the nitty gritty of research methods. Keep in mind these few facts when reviewing the science in

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