You see the funny memes, witty comments on things that they want to pass off as facts. Rather than taking these funny memes as what they are, people tend to take them as facts. The big one going around right now is about lettuce killing more than illegal immigrants. If you took it as a funny meme just like I did, you laughed and ignored it. But then… there are the people who share this as a fact. Then their friends share it thinking it is facts. Both “sides of the aisle” are guilty of doing this. (Remember the toilet challenge that didn’t exist?) The sad truth is that the internet lies and people still believe it.

It’s our fault for not educating ourselves. We get upset when people point out that the meme is a lie. We ask for facts, then dispute the facts because it didn’t come from a news source that you recognize as news, aka whichever one you believe is biased towards the other side’s agenda. I agree that there is a major bias in the mainstream media. That will never be addressed because news organizations like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are businesses. They do what it takes to get ratings, regardless of their job as journalists. The ones on those channels that do the unthinkable, you know reporting the news, get called names or are ignored because people may not like what they are saying. They get dismissed as “the other side”, and their facts are dismissed as bias.

To help with this, I figured I’d let you in on a little secret: memes are devices of humor, not fact. If you think there may be truth to the meme, do yourself a favor and research it. If it’s fact, then you can pass it off as such. If not, don’t get surprised when people call you out on it. I’ve done it to my friends on social media. And they haven’t unfriended me yet for it. The world is complicated and divisive enough as is. We don’t need to add to it by resharing lies. This brainwashes the masses and it isn’t a good look. We should be focused on what we can do to improve the future.

So remember: the internet lies. Trust no one and educate yourself because no one else will. Don’t be a lemming that follows blindly. Be your own, kind and intelligent individual.