Facebookers Are 2.5 Times More Likely To Read Fake News Plus More – The Week's CTRL ALT Delete Segment On CHOM 97.7 FM
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on iHeart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
Last week we had a deep discussion about fake news, and whether Facebook should be held accountable for the spreading of it. Well, here’s some interesting data: It turns out that Facebookers are 2.5 times more likely to read fake news. Also, super-interesting, Millennials are least prone to do that sharing!
Let’s not get too excited about those millennials! According to another study this week, researchers were “shocked” by how many students failed to effectively evaluate the credibility of news items. The students displayed a “stunning and dismaying consistency” in their responses, the researchers wrote, getting fooled over and over. They weren’t looking for high-level analysis of data but just a “reasonable bar” of, for instance, telling fake accounts from real ones, activist groups from neutral sources and ads from articles. More than 80 percent of middle schoolers believed that ‘sponsored content’ was a real news story. “Many assume that because young people are fluent in social media they are equally savvy about what they find there,” the researchers wrote. “Our work shows the opposite.” Ugh.
What if you no longer needed Yelp and other recommendations for dinner, because real data lives in unique places? Well, Business Insider just published an article titled, The top 9 most popular restaurants in New York City, according to Uber. It got me thinking: Uber could have seriously interesting and divergent business models that we’ve never even thought of. Including the fact that it might become the best recommendation engine any of us could have ever imagined… without the need for anybody to review, rate or say anything.