Teaching Ourselves (and Our Children) to Question What We Read Online

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We are drowning in noise. It used to be that if you wanted to publish a thought to a mass audience, you needed a printing press, a broadcast license, or at least a mimeograph machine. Now? You just need a thumb and a bad mood. That barrier to entry is gone, and while that is great for free speech, it is terrible for our collective grasp on reality.

We tend to assume that because something is written down or presented in a slick graphic, it has been vetted. It hasn’t. The gatekeepers have left the building, and we are left sorting through the mess.

The Art of the Hesitation

Speed is the enemy here. Social networks aren’t built for contemplation; they are built for reaction. They want you angry, happy, or scared, and they want it right now. But that split-second decision to repost is where the damage happens.

Real reporters have to fight the urge to be first so they can be right. We should probably steal that habit. If a headline makes your blood boil immediately, that is usually a red flag, not a call to action. Algorithms feed on high-arousal emotions. If you feel yourself getting worked up, that is the exact moment to stop. Don’t let the software play you.

Think Like an Editor

You can’t wait for a moderator to save you. You have to be the gatekeeper for your own household. This means looking at the URL and asking, “Is this real, or does it just look real?” It’s about checking the receipts.

Professionals spend their careers fighting misinformation in journalism, and their biggest weapon is corroboration. If only one random account on a message board is saying it, and the AP or Reuters isn’t, keep walking. We have to drill this into our kids: just because a video has a million likes doesn’t mean it isn’t a complete fabrication. Popularity has never been a proxy for truth.

Spot the Hustle

The internet is a business. Clicks equal cash. That means headlines are often written by people desperate to stop your scroll, not people desperate to tell you the truth. They warp reality to get your attention. A minor city council debate becomes a “WAR.” A celebrity sneeze becomes a “HEALTH CRISIS.”

We need to see this for what it is: a hustle. Ask yourself if the story is trying to make you smarter or just trying to sell ad space. Usually, it’s the latter. When we teach our families to spot the financial incentive behind the outrage, the headlines lose their power.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Kids don’t listen to lectures; they watch what we do. If we sit at the dinner table shouting about some unverified conspiracy we read on a timeline, they are going to think that is how adults process information.

We have to show them it is okay to not know. It is actually a sign of intelligence to say, “I need to look that up before I have an opinion.” With AI churning out fake photos and deep fakes, this kind of skepticism is the only armor they are going to have left. We have to wear it first.