Don’t judge an article by it’s headline

People are only reading headlines and not the actual article

Everyday, people are scrolling through their social medias and look through the variety of headlines that have links to the article. Hardly anyone ever clicks the link to go to the article. They just read the headline and assume what the article is going to say. Even if it’s scandalous, they will just read that headline and automatically believe it’s true.

This is a problem because people put fake headlines out to grab your attention, and then the first thing they say is something like, “that’s whatever everyone thinks, but here’s the real story.”

In a recent study done by computer scientist at Columbia University, 59 percent of links shared to stories on social media are never opened, yet shared on their own social media. This means 59 percent of stories are being shared without people even clicking the link to see what the article is even about. This also means people could be sharing fake news and more and more people will begin to believe it.

One of the most recent stories that people have been sharing is about a 20-year-old who won the lottery and got the jackpot of 451 billion dollars. Someone created a fake account using the winners actual name. The person then said he was sharing all the money with people who retweet and share his account. This caught the eye of a lot of people and people bought into it. Users were sharing and liking all of his post and sharing his account to try and get money. All along though, it was just a kid who took the opportunity to try and get a lot of followers on an account.

Another article was about Democrats wanting to add Martin Luther King Jr. to Mount Rushmore. The Headline stated “Ten congressmen fighting to put Martin Luther King Jr. on Mount Rushmore? Once people go to the article though, it was some guy explaining why people should sign a petition to put him on the monument. The opening talked about how that wasn’t real and then continued on to why he believed Martin Luther King Jr. should be put on Mount Rushmore. This article is a prime example why you should check the link before you start sharing stuff before you even know if it is true or not.

Many people just believe things without even thinking if there is more to the story. They just share stories no matter whether it’s true or not because they never read them to find out. The links are there for a reason, and that reason is because there is more to the story then the headline says. People can’t just read the headlines and think they are true because there are people out there who write fake headlines with links to their actual articles that have nothing to do with the headline. Read before you share news because sometimes there is more than meets the eye.