How to Stop The Spread of Social Media Garbage

Social media garbage is something we’re all interested in stopping, but we all consider to be someone else’s fault and therefore someone else’s responsibility.

I wrote a Twitter thread with some thoughts I had on this, and decided to turn that into a short post. Since it was already written, I’m posting it before part two of How to Win Allies.

How I Was Fooled by Social Media Garbage

I have a confession to make.

Recently I laughed at a photo a friend posted, that made people I’m not a fan of look ridiculous.

Later that night, it occurred to me I had no evidence the photo was real. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it seemed that it was fake.

But I fell for it because it matched the stereotypes I have of “the other side.”

This is exactly the sort of social media garbage I always warn against.

I even wrote an article about why you shouldn’t engage in snerking on the internet.

But I still fell for it.

“If they believe things I don’t like, they must be useless idiots.”

I turned off my skepticism and critical thinking when something matched my biases.

In fact, a few weeks ago I saw a similar obviously fake photo mocking people I was more sympathetic toward, and rolled my eyes at how many people were falling for and sharing that piece of social media garbage.

Then I fell for essentially the same thing.

It’s Hard to Avoid Tribalism

I try very hard to avoid tribalism, because tribalism makes you turn off your brain.

I’m not aligned with a political party.

I don’t label my ideology.

I focus on issues, not sides.

I recognize people can disagree with me without being stupid or evil.

I accept I am almost certainly wrong about some of my beliefs. (Though I don’t know which beliefs, or else I would change them.)

I don’t incorporate political beliefs into my identity, so that I’ll be more open to changing them as I grow and learn.

I have a whole section in my Rules to Live By about this.

But none of us are perfect.

We all fall prey to Internet hate culture.

As hard as I try to be fair, I sometimes engage in stereotyping, snerking, assuming the worst of people I disagree with, or uncritically accepting obvious garbage just because it fits in with my preconceived notions of people who hold views I don’t like.

We are ALL Guilty of Social Media Garbage Behavior

I, who am always railing against this behavior, am sometimes guilty of it.

But here’s the important part:

SO ARE YOU.

It’s easy to talk about cognitive biases.

We can point out how common they are.

And then smugly assume only other people fall for them.

But everyone falls for them, including me, and including you.

You are not above this.

You are not the one person in the world who is perfectly rational.

As much as you tell yourself that you are too clever, thoughtful, objective, and reasonable to fall for this stuff, that just isn’t true.

Nobody is. Not me, and NOT YOU.

That isn’t something to be ashamed of.

Nobody is perfect, our brains are wired to work this way, and Internet hate culture has further brainwashed all of us. (Yes, including you.)

You shouldn’t be ashamed of failing to meet an impossible standard.

But you should be aware of it.

And remember this applies to YOU, not just others.

Nobody is Smart Enough to Avoid Cognitive Biases

There was a section in the book Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, that really stuck with me.

Kahneman reviewed a large set of psychology studies, and found that most of them used far too few subjects to be statistically valid.

These studies had all been designed by professors who understood statistics. They all had the ability to easily calculate how many subjects they needed. But instead of taking five minutes to sit down and do the math, they relied on their intuition, which was universally wrong.

Then Kahneman looked at his own studies, and found the same problem.

Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winning genius who revolutionized both Psychology and Economics, one of the founders of Behavioral Economics, and one of the world’s foremost experts on cognitive biases.

Yet he still fell prey to the exact same cognitive bias he was studying.

This is simply how the human brain works. No one is above falling for these.

The best we can do is recognize that we are not above these traps, and come up with strategies to manage them.

How YOU Can Clean Up Social Media Garbage

So how do we deal with this?

I handle it with my No Snerking Rule, so that even if I fall for misinformation, at least I don’t spread it.

There’s a lot of other benefits to giving up snerking as well, such as increased happiness.

But let’s say you aren’t interested in quitting snerking.

I propose the “One Hour Rule.”

Whenever you see something that makes “the other side” look bad, wait at least one hour before passing it on.

Come back to it later, so you can look at it more critically and not just impulsively believe it.

Then ask these questions before sharing something:

1. “How do I know this is true?”
2. “Would I believe this if it were critical of my side instead of the other side?”
3. “Is this coming from a source I can trust to honestly and fairly describe the other side?”
4. Have I checked the references provided for any facts? (And if there aren’t any references provided, assume it’s false.)
5. Have I checked the context to confirm it’s the time, location, and situation being described? (And if the context isn’t provided, assume it’s false.)
6. Could someone who just wanted to make the other side look bad easily create a fake identical to this? Through Photoshop, made-up facts/statistics/quotes, or making a sign to photograph on a fence or lamppost. (If yes, assume that’s exactly what happened.)

Waiting an hour gives you time and space to really think about this.

Conclusion: Eliminating Social Media Garbage is All Our Responsibilities

There are two things everyone agrees on about social media:

1. There’s way too much toxicity, garbage, and misinformation.
2. This is someone else’s fault.

But it’s all our faults. It’s my fault, and it YOUR FAULT.

This is something YOU can do to help clean things up.

Are you willing to accept that responsibility?*

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* I normally don’t like to use the word responsibility, because it conflates the concepts of blame and ownership. But in this case, that is apt.