Social Media is predominantly just the modern incarnation of the Tabloid.

Social Media is predominantly just the modern incarnation of the Tabloid.  Yep.  I said it.

Yes, I know businesses and athletes and stars and even the average joe is trying to use Pinterest/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Reddit and the like to connect with friends, share stories and post the latest cat video (Va-kume can eat and yell at the same time, in case you missed it).

But what do we all think of Social Media as famous for?  Spreading "news" about some celebrity.  The more salacious the news, or the more famous the celebrity (and mostly some combination of above) the greater it spreads.

Today's piece that made me think about it is Tony Stewart.  The consensus on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook is that he intentionally ran over and killed a competitor.

Statements like "you don't see 7 police at a race track for an accident" are totally unqualified.  I've been at the track for deaths.  You get police cars at the track for people who die from heart attacks in the paddock.  Its just how it is.

Yes he hit the competitor.  Yes the competitor was killed.  He didn't run him over on purpose.  If you watch the video and know about racing and human behavior, what happened was a tragic accident.  The other driver should not have been running TOWARDS other cars on track, dressed in all black on a dark track.

Human tenancies are to steer towards what you are looking at.  Stewart was behind another car.  You're driving around and see motion out of the corner of your eye and you're head and hands are drawn towards it.

Dangerous, Dangerous thing.

But on Social Media, instead of lamenting the loss of life and using it as a teaching moment for the victim's mistakes, we're criminalizing an accident and  someone and rounding up a lynch mob.

Which is what the tabloids of the 60's and 70's did.  Take a celebrity and an event and turn it into a story when it wasn't.  Because that's what sold.  Headlines about drunken accidents and affairs sold!  If you told the truth... you'd go out of business.

You simply can't believe everything you read on social media.  Don't allow yourself to be whipped into a frenzy because "sex sells".  Review the facts (not others opinions) for yourself and seek out KNOWLEDGEABLE sources for your information.