Is this true? I fact checked the Nielsen assertion. The best source I can come up with is from an April 2012 survey of "more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries." That's a lot of respondents! The 70 percent figure is an increase of 15 percent from four years earlier. More people trust friends and family than the internet, but confidence in online information is growing.
I guess this just goes to show that, rather than libraries, or teachers, or other authorities, the internet is where we think information resides.
Maybe our schools should start teaching "how to fact check the web" in about the 4th grade? In high school, they could follow up with teaching "how to tell who a politician's programs benefit." These seem to be the ingredients of contemporary literacy and citizenship.
Paper books can lie too. Mankind has faced this dilemma since the beginning of forming communication and forming communities. Who do ya trust? The thing now is one event after another brings to mind the old Groucho Marx line-- who ya gonna believe-- me or your lying eyes? Now we can't even trust our eyes due to photoshop, editing, etc. So the latest spin on the supposed live baby being harvested for a brain may be a miscarriage and nothing to do with abortion or what Carly Fiorinia and the anti Planned Parenthood crowd claim. Who ya gonna believe...
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon.
Sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Terry and I had a malaise that slowed us down but are OK. We already have gotten our flu shots.
ReplyDeleteGet better soon!