Copy and Paste

OK, folks I have a bee in my bonnet this morning and I’m not going to be able to move along until I get this little rant out of my system.

Facebook is awesome. The internet is awesome. It is also forever. By that I mean, once it’s out there, even for a second, there’s a digital record of it somewhere. Screen grabs, caches, ether. Like the stone thrown or the word spoken, it’s irretrievable.

Do me a favor.

Hell, do yourself and your friends a favor. 

Before you copy and paste anything, Google it. Seriously, it takes like 2 seconds. Try to verify it. A little fact-checking never hurt anyone.

The little kid with cancer – fake.

Facebook starting to charge a fee – fake.

Pepsi and the pledge – fake.

There are the posts that read like a fundamentalist wish list; or the one where we make prison conditions worse because private nursing home facilities care more about profit than they do patients. Oh, let’s not forget the one where we should be following the lead of Afghanistan and North Korea to inform our decisions (that one already inspired a rant).

Read, really read, like with critical reading skills and ask yourself a couple of questions. The first being, “Does this even make sense?” Follow-up with, “Do I agree with this statement in it’s entirety?” Maybe you can even ask yourself, “Do I want this to be associated with my name?”

I’ve recommended items that I don’t necessarily agree with but I agree that they need to be seen and debated. I’m not talking about differing opinions or opposing politics. I’m talking about things that are factually incorrect or contain false equivalences or outright lies.

Everything – and I mean everything – you post becomes part of your digital DNA. Once you post it, you have effectively co-signed it. Not a part of it, not the spirit of it.

It.

All of it.

In it’s entirety.