To be annoyed when apparently reasonable and intelligent people share blatantly false 'warnings' on FB.

[EarlessToothlessVagabond]

Yes I know it's fb and I have a choice to be on there but... come on!! I have friends (not just fb friends, real actual sane and sensible friends) who share the most awful, obviously fake warnings along the lines of 'DO NOT EAT BANANAS WITH BLUE STICKERS ON THEM THEY'RE ALL INFECTED WITH EBOLA ...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!' etc. Why why why?!

I end up hating myself as this kind of thing turns me into a raging, elitist snob. The naivety and ignorance of otherwise intelligent, sane friends leaves me incredibly depressed.

Praps we should have compulsory modules as part of the school curriculum:

"Assessing sources of news for reliability"

"How to check facts"

"Understanding context"

"Screening for bias"

Etc. The most annoying thing is how bloody easy it is and yet people don't bother or even see it as a thing that what they are being told may, just may, not be entirely true.

''Tis lovely to vent about it here though!!

Ah, @treaclesoda, it's not Christmas until the old "A Muslim lady warned my friend not to go into on Boxing Day" thread shows up...

I think it's got harder to know what's legit because a lot of stuff online looks similar to a lot of people. It really does need to be taught.

I've just unfollowed someone who is a lefty artsy type, very into wellbeing, who used to post about nature, yoga and mindfulness, but has managed to get sucked into conspiracy theories - basically via the evils of technology, big pharma, but is now posting stuff about the Rothschilds which isn't even veiled in its anti-semitism. I really think it's a skill that needs to be taught differently now, you can't just look at the size of the paper anymore.

I'm actually really scared how many people do fall for this fake news shit.

@BelfastSmile Ah, @treaclesoda, it's not Christmas until the old "A Muslim lady warned my friend not to go into on Boxing Day" thread shows up...

I have this mental picture of All The Muslims gathering for the official daily briefing.

YANBU
This is one of the many reasons I quit fb too. Unfortunately, I've replaced my time spent looking through my news feed and reading moronic comments on posts with reading threads on AIBU... Which I find to be the opposite of fb... i.e everyone here is so articulate and intellectual that I feel inadequate

I've unfollowed so many people on FB for sharing crap. I only share local events that I think certain people would be interested in and once when a friend's cat went missing in an area she lived and I also had friends that lived there that she wouldn't know.

YANBU! I only really use Facebook to keep in touch with family members, some who live abroad. But I have one friend who's terrible for this, she even tags us all in her posts so I get bloddy notifications! Lots of if this is stuck on your windscreen don't move it, crying baby by the road tricks etc.......

Also my mum does regular safeguarding training for her job and something that was brought up on her recent one was, missing people/children posts on Facebook. Something I'd never thought off, but what a obvious and easy way for an abusive ex/family member to try find someone who doesn't want to be found! So unless it's from the police in which case it would also be on their site, don't presume it's genuine!

I get the fake Disney cruises shared by some of my friends. The 'this cruise didn't sell so we're giving it away!' and 'no one claimed their prize so we're doing the competition again!' It's not even a genuine fb page!

I kind of hoped all the left wing conspiracy bollocks, was people being ironic.

YANBU. It's so annoying.

To echo what Emboo said - there are also the posts that say "this man has been involved in illegal dog fights and needs to be caught - share!"
What if the man in the picture is entirely innocent but some sick individual has a vendetta against him and his picture ends up all over the internet being accused of a crime he hasn't commited??

I think it's fair to remember that people are not necessarily stupid, they just have't yet learned the right skills, or haven't practised enough that applying those skills is automatic.

(some people are quite stupid, of course)

Top tips include:

If a page has only 10k likes, it's not actually EuroDisney's page.

@Trills If a page has only 10k likes, it's not actually EuroDisney's page.

Similarly, "Virgin Atlantic Airline." (sic) really don't have any need to give away first class tickets.

And the picture you are looking at is (widely google-able) Emirates' private suites, not "Easyjet Air". You really think that is what EJ would offer if they even had such a thing as First Class?

It pains me greatly that so many people are this stupid. And that they can vote.

Don't forget the 'marks on the ground to show what houses to burgle' thing.

No, that's just the council.

Not a hoax but my step mother who is younger than me posted a topless pic of herself amongst pics of her and her nieces on a 50s retro day! I posted 'Some people are too stupid to use Facebook' as my status for the day!

A former classmate of mine recently shared a post saying that "Doctors have warned" that you should wash new bras before you wear them because they are made in 'third world countries' and 'can be infected with parasites' that cause maggots to breed in your tits. There was even a terrible Photoshop of a tit with said maggots in it, only to anyone with even one-third of a brain it was obvious that it was a healthy boob with part of an image of a seed head from a poppy plant overlaid to make the boob like it had neat, perfectly circular holes in it with an identical 'maggot' (ie seed) in each one.

Cue loads of replies saying "OMG babes thanx for sharing!!!!" and "always buy British hun x"

Same woman also thinks she is going to win an iPad that 'can't be sold because the seal on the box is broken' on a daily basis and that 'Romanian gypsies' are always on the look out for 'blonde toddlers' to kidnap because 'blonde hair is considered lucky in their culture'.

that was actually a Mumsnetter. She posted a thread on it before it hit the media. Someone being malicious and trying to close down her business through fake bad publicity.

I remember that thread. I felt so sorry for her.

Snopes snopes snopes

And then defriend because I don't like hanging out with thick people who have poor critical thinking skills

A former classmate of mine recently shared a post saying that "Doctors have warned" that you should wash new bras before you wear them because they are made in 'third world countries' and 'can be infected with parasites' that cause maggots to breed in your tits.

Dollydaydream, Haha, that was going round as a viral email about 15 years ago! I can't believe people are still a) believing and b) sharing this. I know exactly the photoshopped pic you're talking about; it's completely unrealistic (obviously) but also creepy and trypophobia-ish.

What about the "as of today, 9th August, I don't give Facebook permission to access my info/ steal my pictures/rob my house/dognap my pooch.... copy and paste for this TO. WORK. Don't just SHARE my post for the love of Jesus

Haha Hoosier

The missing kids and missing adults ones really worry me. They might have a very good reason not to be found. Unless it is a police post, I always point out how dangerous it is sharing something like this.

Missing kids..even if they are genuine. when you google you can bet they are
a) already found
b) not local to you or indeed foreign
c) months or years out of date

so even if genuine the chances of the person being in suburbia /Brighton/Stoke or wherever is slim when the advert is USA/Australia!