How Not To Read Trash Online

June 27, 2023

As rightly written by Fr Kelvin Ugwu, 'The biggest advantage of online news is also its biggest disadvantage. The fact that you can get information quickly and easily is a significant advantage. That is also a disadvantage because you can get the wrong information easily and quickly.'

For people who seek treasure from the ocean (internet) but find that just like the ocean is facing plastic pollution, oil spills, and acidification, the internet is facing misinformation, fake news, and cyberbullying. The ability to categorise online content will make participating in and digesting online content much easier.

Let me distinguish between storytelling, news, opinion/reaction, and analysis/information. Knowing the difference between these types of online content is something most people find difficult at first. But it is very easy with little or no critical thinking skills required.

1. Storytelling contents

Start by understanding that beyond the catchy titles, sometimes it is less serious than you think. It is just an online friend trying to tell you a story in written form.

This form of online content could have links to tangible kinds of stuff like popular places or celebrities. Still, the content creator only has one purpose in mind: to share a story to engage you and stimulate your mind positively or negatively.

You can sometimes read a story that narrates the writer's experience at a particular place or with a famous person, which could be awful or awesome — but that is not enough to draw perception because the purpose of storytelling is to leave the reader thinking a certain way by deliberately removing or adding bits to spice it up.

However, we are social beings and, most times, need these stories to simulate our minds just like we engage with any other form of creative artwork.

Funnily, well-written online stories easily go viral on the right platform, like Facebook & Twitter.

2. News: What happened.

It could be put in another way — News: events happened.

News writers are skilled professionals who possess intelligence and undergo training to extract significance, draw inferences, and arrive at conclusions based on facts. Regardless of their personal stance, they are bound by the responsibility to present objective information without freely expressing their own opinions or thoughts in straightforward news reporting.

The individuals behind the production of news content are primarily journalists who work for news organizations. Their expertise lies in assimilating factual information and utilizing their comprehension to simplify complex subjects, thereby facilitating the public's understanding of the news.

However, to get the most out of online news, you need to weigh the credibility of the news source and read from different news companies. This is because journalists are also trained to identify the prevailing perspective on a subject and provide news based on an alternative perspective, just as we saw during the global Covid_19 pandemic and the current Russian/Ukraine war.

3. Opinion/reaction: A thought of someone about something.

If put in another way: Here’s what I think about events that happened.

Meaning that anyone, you, me, and even my grandparents in a village in Africa, can write their opinion and put it online.

However, this is important because not everyone is an expert, but many non-experts (or non-expert writers) have something important to say about an event. In addition, every voice is important to understanding events.

The worthwhile caution is — while opinion content voices a point of view, it must not misrepresent other points of view.

4. Analysis/information: An expert explores facts and draws conclusions to inform what happened and why.

If put in another way, this informs — facts or topics could/can be understood this way.

Anyone can stand in as an expert and write about how a fact or a topic could be understood. However, this should consider a lot of thoughts and implications, usually through studies and experiences to come up with.

Society (readers) wants to understand what events mean and/or broaden their knowledge on topics. Society wants to read (consume) online content from differing scopes.

While sometimes, we want to have an understanding of a topic area from an expert and have it explained to us why the expert thinks so and how we can do our own further studies on the topic.

This point changes an analysis or information content to what readers seeking information want to find and not what a writer wants to tell them, like in the case of opinion/reaction content.

Therefore, a writer seeking to create analysis or informative content should at least have experience, knowledge and other backgrounds which they use to interpret a matter. I don’t think you have to be a professor of finance to write about finance or cryptocurrency, but at least be an investor that follows the market and trends closely. And not just someone that writes because it is trendy — if not, you are just sharing your opinion or reacting, thank you very much.

An analysis or informative writer should not include their own opinion because they are standing in a position similar to professional teachers.

Conclusion

To consume online content, we must know what we are reading. We must not think we are reading analysis when we have opinionated online content, nor think we are reading the news when we have storytelling in front of us.

I labelled my title ‘How Not To Read Trash Online,’ now that you have finished reading, could you tell me in the comment section the kind of content this is? I am curious to learn what you think…

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

I am trying to build a community of wonderful people who hear from and interact actively with me — I would be happy to welcome you to the group.

Many thanks for reading my perspective and giving feedback.

My fervent wish is for the personal growth of everyone and the success of all young professionals who put their hearts and souls into finding their purpose in life.