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Book Look: Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg

 Possibly the longest post title ever on this blog.

 

I grew up with the internet. It was easy to be fooled back then. Nigerian Princes. Chain Letters. Bonsai Cats (do not look that up).

 It's - arguably - easier now. Entities are trying to sell you something, get you to buy into crypto, NFTs, or AI, or make you believe something that furthers their interests. 

Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online by  Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg walk through how old techniques fall short of the new internet.

 

(Many of these entries are slight alterations from my LinkedIn posts on the subject while reading. This is not a review, just some thoughts.)

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Caulfield and Wineburg introduce the SIFT method; 

 Stop

 Investigate the Source 

Find Other Coverage 

Trace the Claim to the Original Context

I particularly like how, early in the book, 'Stop' is accompanied by asking yourself  'What am I looking at?'. Because just...what are you looking at? What's on the screen? Is it believable in real life? 

---

Professionals can be wrong.

That's a good thing - As the book says, it says we "are in the market for ways to improve,"

That's not to confuse people who are thoughtfully wrong with conspiracy theorists by people who don't know the material.

Just because the internet gave us a platform to learn new Points of View doesn't mean all points have the same value about the same subject. There's a great chance neither of us here know about open heart surgery - Us pretending we do serves to muddy the waters.

The US is getting an active course in this right now.

------- 

One chapter was about the perversion of advertisements into our news websites.

The authors mention "People block ads, so they've lost efficacy." A lot less people than you think block ads. They don't know how to because they mostly use mobile devices - they're used to seeing advertisements. They think it's natural for their devices to heat up, whining and screaming, as it's overloaded by visual noise.
 
There are mobile adblockers, Brave browser, take a look around.

Anyway - have you seen the titles "creative directors" or "content strategists"? Or something like this inline on LinkedIn? (Company and (undoubtedly, a promotional link) redacted)
 
 

Then you've seen ad sales people, manning departments with cotton-candy copy like BBC's Storyworks - "to help brands connect through beautifully crafted storytelling" conveniently placed between news articles, sponsored by large companies.

They're trying to make your perception of a company more positive.
----

One thing I wish the book mentioned in the "Sneaky Advertisements" section*;

You've seen these ads.

The person looks ordinary.
It's filmed in portrait mode.
The person appears to act as your friend.
They encourage you to lean in, as if they're about to drop some truly life-changing news.

Finally, they say "Omg I got [object] from [store]."
"[service] solved all my problems!"
"Click here bestie and [benefit!]!"

LinkedIn themselves have used this tactic on Instagram.

In a world where people aren't connected, brands pretend to fill in the gap.

*To be fair, I think this popped off after the published date of 2023. 

 

There is much, much more to the book - The sections on checking for website and organization legitimacy is very important - Find the website here and purchase it (or ask a library to purchase it!) 

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