I’ve been mega in my feelings this week about clickbait, misinformation, and how we all act as amplifiers of information on the internet.

Why? I am just so frustrated, disappointed, and depressed about how that “France banned shein hauls” post has gone viral this week. Hundreds of people sent that post to me and that account gained the number of followers in just a few days that it took me five years to gain. I spent hours making a post debunking it…and like 1000 people saw it.

What a waste of time (or so it felt at the time).

After a week of holding it inside, I finally talked to Dustin about it yesterday. How I have felt so hopeless, like I’ve wasted years of my life that I’ll never get back researching and writing the most factual information I can find for all of you…and how it feels pointless in a clickbait, AI slop world.

I might make a reel about it (depends how writing this week’s episode goes), but I will say that after talking it through with Dustin…I had a revelation: it’s not hopeless. Because all of us (you, me, and everyone we know) play a part in what others get to see online. We are an extremely important part of fighting misinformation on social media. As we like/comment/share a post, it signals the algorithm to show it to more people. If we don’t engage with misinformation, it reaches less people. If we see something great (and true) and share it with others…they see good information. And ultimately, what we share/don’t share on social media is a small radical act we can do every single day.

This post is some advice for “fact checking” stuff on social media. I do this every day. You’ll rarely see me share posts in my IG stories because if I don’t have time to verify the information, I just move on. But if I can take a minute to read an article confirming it, I share it because I want more people to see good, true news.

First things first:

I’m here to remind you…that YOU are really smart! If something feels “too good to be true” or just generally “off,” it probably is!

What else?

1. Be extra critical of posts that are simply a screenshot of a post from another platform. Important details may have been cropped out.

2. Read the full caption to see if any sources are cited. Be wary of any post that does not include a credible source.

3. Avoid posts that portray anything in very simple black/white, good/bad terms. Remember: truth is often full of grey area and nuance. All situations are full of complication and contradiction.

Then there is the fact-checking piece of it all:

• Do an internet search. In just a few minutes, you can know the full story. Searching can be as simple as typing “is_____ true?” or picking the keywords from the post and entering those.

• In general, I disregard the AI search results because they are usually inaccurate….especially after Google told me that Clotheshorse is hosted by Andrea Kennedy (definitely not my name). If you want to avoid Google’s use of AI, opt for DuckDuckGo.

• Look for unbiased news sources when validating information you have seen on social media. My favorites are Associated Press, NPR, PBS, and Reuters. For fashion-related stuff, I’ll often look at WWD and Business of Fashion.

• Of course, alll news has some kind of bias because (hopefully) it’s written by humans. You can learn more about where news sources land on the bias spectrum (liberal or conservative) using the Ad Fontes Media media bias chart.

• Read beyond the headline. Why? Because many headlines are also designed to be clickbait (or at least SEO optimized), so they don’t necessarily reflect the information in the actual article.

• If you don’t have time to fact check and read an article, just don’t share the post. That’s actually a super easy way to stop misinformation with minimal effort!

   

   

So let’s say you have encountered some misinformation on social media…what do you do next?

• The easiest thing you can do is just not share that post. Period. Engagement = any sharing/commenting/saving, even if it’s negative. So if you share a post and add that caveat “this is complete hogwash,” the algorithm reads this as a good thing, and shows it to more people.

• If you feel like it, take it to the next level: report posts that are misinformation. I have found this to be only occasionally effective, but it’s always worth a try.

• Unfollow accounts that regularly share misinformation or heavily skewed info. Outrageous content=engagement, so some accounts are sharing misinformation because it gets a lot more likes, shares, and comments.

   

And if you do accidentally post something that turns out to be untrue? Just admit it and share the correct information. Seriously…there are accounts and organizations out there that have made an art out of driving engagement via clickbait…it’s designed to trick us! And it can happen to anyone! I’ve been laughing all morning about a very obvious AI slop post that a friend shared of Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton in a row boat saving flood victims in Texas.