It’s no secret that social media sites are quickly replacing traditional news sources. People want news, and they want it now, as it happens. Social media provides that immediacy that we’ve come to expect, but what happens when we realise the things we read aren’t necessarily the things that actually happened?

Recently, I have begun to notice that I’m more apt to follow news stories via Twitter when I want to stay up-to-date on the most recent information. Last week was no exception as I closely followed the events that took place at the Boston Marathon via Twitter and Facebook. I quickly took note that conflicting stories were being reported by different people. Was there one explosion or two? Was the fire at the JFK Library associated with the events that took place at the finish line of the marathon or was it an isolated event?

The race to report things first has led to many news sources reporting the wrong information. Stories about death tolls, suspects and alleged arrests of those responsible all made their way into my newsfeed last week, and all contained incorrect information. In addition to all of the misleading stories, I was shocked at the amount of pictures and memes that floated around Facebook associated with fallacious stories of things that never happened, all to simply get ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ridiculous attention.

All of the false reports of an arrest being made 2 days after the attack, caused the FBI to release the following statement:

“Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack,” reads the FBI’s unusual statement.

“Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate,” it continued. “Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.”

At a time when sharing information has become more popular than ever, it has never been so important to truly take a step back and ask ourselves, “is this information I’m about to share true, honest, and useful to the people I’m about to share it with?”

I, for one, plan to leave the false news stories, conspiracy theories, and useless propaganda to the people who buy into that nonsense and vow to continue using my 140 characters wisely and accurately.

Meg Goodrich
Digital Account Executive