The Role Of Social Media In Spreading Pseudoscience

In the article, “Pseudoscience Is Taking Over Social Media and Putting Us All at Risk”, Santosh Vijaykumar describes the role social media plays in spreading false information, more specifically scientific information. Vijaykumar suggests scientists need to be more active in developing creative ways to communicate their findings. If not, social media can put a twist on climate change and virus outbreaks, and although it may be interesting and make sense, provide false information. Vijaykumar provides good solutions to prevent the spread of misinformation on social media, however, he should have discussed some of the technique’s scientists could use to express their findings.

Vijaykumar predicts that conspiracy theorists might hold an edge over those believing in science. Joachim Allgaier analyzed the content of 200 random YouTube videos related to climate change. He found that 107 of 200 of the videos denied humans caused climate change or claimed climate change is a conspiracy. Videos are made believable by terms used like “geoengineering” and their claims had a scientific basis. It would be easy for an uneducated person to watch one of those videos and believe everything they saw. I use YouTube quite often and decided to see how true this really is. I looked up a video myself and watched it, and the recommended videos were similar to what I had watched. Some were more believable than others, but they all had a similar theory. I found a video that was wildly untrue, and the other recommended videos were also similar. So, it takes one click to be misled and watch a video that is not at all scientifically proven. If it is that easy to believe an unreliable source, what if you watched a video from a scientist. Someone who has actually done the research and found evidence to prove their findings. Except, the problem is there aren’t many. If scientists were more involved in posting content on social media, such as videos or blogs, there would be more factual information.

There was another instance Vijaykumar discussed that happened in May 2018. The Nipah virus outbreak in the southern Indian state of Kerala killed 17 people. It was proven by scientists that the fruit bat is responsible for the virus. But, one person falsified a document to make people believe that Nipah was spread through chicken meat. Neighboring states of Kerala believed this and were hesitant to consume chicken, causing local chicken traders to suffer significantly. Very similar issues appear all the time on social media. On two main social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, this happens quite often. I have seen multiple posts that provided false information but made it look believable. Such as a statement from health officials on the Zika virus. They would make it appear as an official letter from the health department and use false information to mislead people. This could have been easily avoided if people were better educated by certified officials, such as scientists by posting information on social media.

We are easily influenced by the information we see and read. Advances in technology also make it easy to misinform and manipulate information. In order to prevent this, Vijaykumar insists social media is trying to contain the spread of misinformation and provide correct scientific information. “Key terms with false information have been blocked and research grants to study the issue have also been awarded”. But we can help ourselves. Instead of believing everything we read on social media, we should be better informed on information by checking the facts and determining if the source is reliable ourselves. This is being done by a district in Kerala that has a program to educate children to tell the difference between authentic and fake information. This program will lead to children thinking about the information they see on social media and deciding for themselves what they read is true or false.

As you can see, there are multiple instances around the world that social media is putting us at risk. From climate change videos on YouTube to false letters on social media, it is very important for scientists to get involved and help put a stop to the spread of false information. Vijaykumar provides good solutions to prevent the spread of misinformation on social media, however, he should have discussed some of the technique’s scientists could use to express their findings. If they communicate to the public their findings in an interesting way, such as social media or YouTube videos, their work would be more likely to be seen and used by millions of people, instead of them being drowned out by YouTuber’s and other social media influencers who have no factual evidence. When scientists take this step to help provide information, people around the world will become better educated on important topics such as: climate change, viruses, and much more. As a result, false information will be less likely to spread and there will be a better knowledge of the information they are reading or watching.

Works Cited

Vijaykumar, Santosh. “Pseudoscience Is Taking Over Social Media – and Putting Us All at Risk.” The Conversation, 5 Aug. 2019, theconversation.com/pseudoscience-is-taking-over-social-media-and-putting-us-all-at-risk-121062. Accessed 2 October 2019