EOTO 2 reaction: Misinformation

 Misinformation is also known as giving incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation can be used to corrupt or mislead people in their information and what they learn. Misinformation is a negative aspect of the government and social media. For instance, misinformation is becoming very prevalent in the world of politics on social media. 

An article from BBC.com talks about the rampant spread of misinformation of TikTok during the 2024 presidential campaign and election. The BBC article pointed out how TikTok was feeding into the spread of misinformation by stating, “Young voters in key election battlegrounds are being recommended fake AI-generated videos featuring party leaders, misinformation, and clips littered with abusive comments, the BBC has found. With TikTok emerging as a new social media battleground in this election, the political parties have begun a war of memes on the app in a bid to reach its audience of young voters.”

The major negatives of misinformation is that it is spreading lies and false information to vulnerable people. I feel that the group most affected by misinformation is really young impressionable children and elderly adults. According to the American Psychological Association misinformation affects us in many different ways stating “The spread of misinformation and disinformation has affected our ability to improve public health, address climate change, maintain a stable democracy, and more.”

In closing, I feel that misinformation is a negative attribute of knowledge, because someone is spreading information that they may not know is wrong and spreading it without the accurate information. I also feel that the biggest category that suffers from the spread of misinformation is politics and the world of healthcare. For example, in the world of healthcare my grandmother has stories of her time as a nurse anesthetist and just as an individual who works in healthcare that misinformation is spread in the medical world constantly. Lastly, misinformation is something that should not be taken lightly and should always be fact-checked.