Are you angry yet?

We’ve had a weird four or five years don’t you think? What with lots of stories flying around social media, many with the potential to cause upset and raid the hackles.

Here, in my opinion, is why.

You see an outrageous piece you get emotionally wound up by it, so you post it on social media.

Someone else sees it and either agrees or doesn’t. If they agree, they often share it or post with the link to the piece on their timeline and before you know it, it’s popping up everywhere.

And below it in the thread, people are vociferously agreeing or disagreeing, tempers get raised and on and on it goes.

But what’s also true is that in this time when the news is so easy to get out there, it’s also so easy to get rumours and misinformation out there as well.

What you have to remember though, is that the media is looking to sensationalise everything. It gets your attention.

We live in a world in which numerous publishers generate income from pay-per-click advertising. Why else do you think you see so many adverts on a page in amongst the editorials? The more readers an article gets the more customers and more revenue.

That’s why we see more and more biased and sensational reporting. It gets you reading. It’s all about the money!

The media is doing its best to manipulate you and your emotions. Just don’t fall for it.

And we’re seeing more and more news sites on the net, more special interest groups, more activist web sites.

Call me a cynic if you want, but I look at them with adverts all over the pages and can’t help but think it’s all about the money.

And yet people see it on the net and take what they’re reading at face value. Their emotions are heightened and then they spread around social media getting more involved in the narrative and everyone clicking on the links to the story and it is contributing to the source’s income.

Even when it’s a fabricated source people fall for it. We appear to have become more gullible.

I stopped taking things like this at face value and getting all hot and bothered about it a while back.

I rarely share anything because I don’t want to keep it going.

I think that we really need to should start looking a bit deeper before we share everything that we see.

But what can we do?

For starters, check the source. Is the piece anonymous? If you can’t trace who wrote it can you believe it?

Don’t believe everything they’ve quoted, especially if they’ve quoted someone else. If they’ve not checked their source properly and it’s wrong, they’ll just say it’s the original source’s fault.

When you read a quote, it’s usually been picked out because the writer wants you to think a certain way, positive or negative. But is that quote taken in the context of the subject the speaker was talking about?

Pretty much anything we say can be turned around used against us if it’s put in a different perspective. What was the person actually trying to say? The only way to know is to read the original piece and not just the quote.

If it’s sensational and sounds unbelievable, chances are that if you think it is, it is! Does the piece try to show both sides of the story or is it biased? Are there dubious motives about the piece?

Are all media covering the story in the same way? If they’re not all saying the same thing, then it’s probably not as straightforward as you think.

And, I suppose, you really need to ask yourself do you need to share it? Have you fact-checked that it’s right or are you taking it at face value?

Do you need to share it now? Does it really need to be shared?

People are trying hard to get us to believe their point of view in order to gain an advantage over us. It’s how it is.

Yes, I’m cynical. You may think I’m talking rubbish. You don't have to agree with me, it's just my opinion. But don’t you owe it to yourself to check before you share?

I’ve seen so many sensation headlines over the last four or five years. There have been so many stories where the truth’s been bent just enough to make you get emotional enough to get wound up.

And all the time, the pay per click income keeps rolling on in.

The choice is yours...

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