Memes Are Not News Sources
Sure, they're funny and on-point, but they are far from reliable.
Hey everyone!
My apologies for the belated posting. Thanksgiving weekend had me mixing up my days. But here it is, the latest addition.
Memes. We all love them, and for good reason. They are funny and even downright hysterical at times. We all have that friend or relative who fills their social media accounts of funny memes about various things - politics, famous people, society, and so on. There are even memes of great famous quotes, or proverbs to wish us well and see the positive in everything. Heck, we may be that friend or relative posting all these memes!
But here’s the thing: as funny and thought-provoking memes are, they are not reliable - meaning, they are entirely untrustworthy.
Why so? Because anyone can create a meme. Really! There’s websites and apps that allow visitors to create memes with any image and any text to go into it. There’s no news media company creating these memes to get people thinking about a particular issue or see a powerful person differently. It can be done by anyone, and therefore, everyone.
See? This one I just created myself, to make my point, in more ways than one.
Since memes can be made by anyone in the world, they are at great risk of being factually incorrect. After all, there’s no one fact-checking these memes and whoever creates such memes are not fact-checking either. An example of that is a Trump quote that has been popping up on social media from time to time:
This meme has been widely shared all over the internet, and has fueled the belief many have that Trump ran for President only for business reasons. But the thing is, Trump never said this. He never told People magazine this, and People itself confirmed that although the publication had interviewed Trump several times during the 1990s, there never was an interview with him in 1998. Not to mention, the pic above is a screenshot of when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey back in 1987. So, this meme above is entirely false.
But look at how easily that meme was spread online and believed by so many. As tempting as it is, we cannot believe anything memes say. Yes, they are hilarious. Yes, they can be deep. Yes, they may mention something that clicks with our beliefs. But if anyone can make them, and there’s no copyright or fact-checking memes, then the field is wide open for memes to mention anything, no matter how untrue.
So, the next time your good buddy or your Uncle Pete share a meme online that has political or social commentaries to it, be careful - or you’ll end up being misinformed like too many people are these days.
How about you? Have you ever fallen victim to believing a meme that was totally incorrect? If you’re not alone; we’ve all done it. Feel free to share in the comments below!
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