Real or fake

Today’s generation is a generation that revolves around social media. Every day someone reports and snaps a picture or quote that has gone viral. But are these pictures and quotes legitimate? I have to admit, I am one of those individuals that do not always check the validity of a picture before I repost it. To be perfectly honest, there are times when I have thought about whether it was real or fake but did not know how to check the validity. That is why I am glad I participated in a "real or fake" challenge for my class.


Real or Fake Challenge:The challenge began with looking at a picture, 2 hotel reviews, and 3 quotes, which I needed to determine whether or not it is real or fake. I saw a few obvious things on these items so I was able to make a hypothesis. The picture still contained the cursor and a few of the items were much bigger than they should have been, so I knew it was fake. For the hotel reviews, I was completely stumped. Lastly,the quotes, they were the easiest to determine validity, I simply googled these.

After making my inferences, I went to the blog post with the answers. My thought process for the picture and quotes was correct. However, I learned something new when it came to the hotel reviews. There is a website, reviewskeptic.com, that determines the validity of quotes. But you could also do your own personal research. Google the reviewer and learn about their review history. Read some of their other reviews and determine if the tone of their review is consistent with the other reviews posted. Turns out, both reviews were real!

Knowing whether a post is real or fake is very important. As I was googling the validity of one of the quotes, I came across an article about Ben Carson. Ben Carson,a very prosperous surgeon, used a quote allegedly spoken by Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately for Mr. Carson, the quote was fake, and he received grand amounts of backlash for his lack of research. This is why it is so important to be very thorough in your knowledge of real versus fake. Especially when you are in a position that has such a heavy effect on those around you.

This is why, as an educator, I believe it is important to teach my students to be able to tell the difference. My students will write research papers or even simpler, repost posts on social media. They must know what is real versus what is fake. Many of my students will grow up to be the next doctor, teacher, basketball player, or even CEO of a company. They must know how to pass on the right VALID information, to those in their care and circle. As humans were are already judged our appearances, I will not allow my student to subject themselves to judgment for their lack of knowledge on real versus fake!