Why Fake Is Good For You, By Nel Staveley

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Recommended: How does the media effect opinions

Many online authors just compile arguments filled with opinionated statements and slap an intriguing title on the article to draw in readers. Leading to fake news, these articles contain subject matters that many readers take to heart. Some articles are satirical; however, even satirical articles are taken seriously and many readers use this information to cause tensions between people that do not agree with their views. Fake news is dangerous because a society that does not take the time to distinguish what subsists factual from fictional remains biased and divided. This article entitled “Why cake is good for you,” and written by Nel Staveley, identifies as fake news due to its’ lack of sources, contains opinionated elements that indicate …show more content…

As stated earlier, opinions have two routes: positively encouraging a debate or negatively shunning out others with conflicting opinions. Judith Donath, a former director of the MIT Media Lab’s Sociable Media Group, states that, “posting any story...that conforms to your community’s viewpoints bolsters your ties with them.” Therefore, people post their opinions to remain a part of an “existing Community” and o continuously shun out those with conflicting feelings and thoughts. In this article about why cake is good for you, Staveley shows that her story that one posts helps those readers remain in their “cake loving” community. This constitutes the article as unreliable due to its original intent of pre-based biases from the author and her audience. Opinions posted in her article, help to influence the reader that cake “makes you popular,” and “has good things in it.” Positively perceived statements such as these help her biased community to remain in their bubble of thought that cake helps you positively. The reason these opinions may be harmful to readers is because then the readers believe that cake has many vitamins and cures from depression. Vitamin deficiency is harmful and depression is something that doctors should help regulate. Staneley gives only opinionated statements that should be left to professionals and not up to internet authors such …show more content…

These types of articles are just shared all over multiple sites and no one takes the time to dissect the information provided throughout them. Most of these online authors are just looking for money from the clicks of their victim readers that fell for their trap. When these articles are shared at such a constant speed, not too many have the time to detest them and even if they do they are shunned by the other readers. Therefore, people will just continuously share these articles because they are easy and stir up interesting conversations. Readers must take the time to do their research and see if the authors and their opinions are backed by professional, educated sources. Other readers may detest one’s own character because they are upset that another actually took the time to truly read the article. However, readers must continue to not be afraid of being pushed out of a group. For if readers were to stop researching, the internet and world would be filled with overly biased, dramatic thoughts and opinions. A world filled with these opinions leads to chaos and further divisions. Therefore, requiring readers to analyze articles is something that should be encouraged for the benefit of both the readers’ and their societies in

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