There’s some work involved, to be sure. But these days, getting your facts straight often takes at most a minute to find out.
That’s because we have search engines. Practically the entire sum of human knowledge is at your fingertips, 24×7, from almost anywhere on the planet. But for some reason, people will repeat claims that are verifiably false. They will smash the share button or click the retweet. Or for a classic move, they will another “FWD: ” to the front of the email subject line as they forward on the message.
It’s easy to dismiss this behavior as people being lazy or stupid. But I don’t think that’s it. Rather, I think people are busy and it’s much easier to assume something which sounds like it’s true is probably true.
I’d love for everyone to take the extra sixty seconds to check things out. But perhaps what’s more important is for all of us to agree that we care about the truth. It’s hard to accept when we are wrong, and yet, finding the right answer (if one exists) is how the world moves forward.
Take the extra sixty seconds. Try and get it right.
And if I made a mistake, please let me know.
