I tracked my media usage yesterday, in particular, to pay attention to any misinformation that I may have encountered. I chose to track this day in particular because I knew it would be a long day for me, which meant I would have a higher chance of encountering misinformation.
5–5:30 am—I don’t tend to check my phone in the early morning unless someone is trying to contact me. So, the first piece of media I tend to consume in the morning is music. I usually put on a personal Spotify-generated playlist unless I’m in the mood to listen to something specific. Today, it was Spotify’s Sister of Mercy mix.
1–2:30 pm—I had to run some errands after work. I struggled to find what I needed and ended up driving all over town! I again listened to another Spotify-generated playlist, this time for Type-O Negative.
3-3:30 – Once home, I had no motivation to do anything! I took a quick nap and then doom scrolled through TikTok. There is one creator I enjoy watching; she goes by Sriracha and typically posts silly videos. Well, Sriracha posted about the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added to the Signal group chat about the bombing of Yemen. Mainly, she discussed the hypocrisy of how this situation is handled compared to other past scandals, such as Hilary Clinton’s emails or Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
Warning she does curse excessively in the video.
After reading the initial article, the only misinformation I could specifically gather was that she identified JD Vance as the one to add Goldberg to the group chat when in his article, it was listed as Michael Waltz.
After watching her video, I immediately trusted her. I think I was inclined to trust her because she doesn’t make informative content. Still, that video was not explicitly informative; she shared her opinion of the situation more. In the future, I will trust that she has an idea of what’s going on but I don’t think she shares information in a way that is meant to or should inform others.
I tend to scroll past longer and more serious content from unfamiliar creators unless something fascinating happens initially. I did try to pay more attention to content that I usually skip. I came across a video that made me question how reliable the information is. The creator, Jess B, posted a video of “The Most Dangerous Alt-Right Rabbit Holes for Women.” She speeds through different trends and how they can lead someone to a highly conservative group. She does preface the video by saying that it’s not necessarily a direct pipeline. However, it is likely.
The creator did not provide any sources, and some of her words seem incredibly exaggerated. For instance, claiming that “Skinny Tok” and diet culture could potentially lead someone to eugenics. However, after looking it up, nutrition and eugenics have a long-standing relationship.
However, this content creator did not just post this video; she responded to herself. The original video was of her showing off her outfit with text that read:
After looking more at her page, Jess claims that her content is focused on “the intersection of trends, internet culture, and politics and how it relates to mainly gen z and millennials.” She also lists in her bio that she’s been in R29, The Knot, and Business Insider. All signs point to show that she can be trusted. However, I will probably continue skipping more serious content from unknown creators. Mainly because it’s not the kind of entertainment I am looking for on TikTok.
3:30–5 pm – Still trying to recover from my shift this morning, I read some of my book. Currently, I’m reading Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones. It’s a companion to another book of hers, Howl’s Moving Castle!
5:30 pm—I finally decided to check in on school. I briefly glanced at my email and saw nothing of importance. I only regularly check my school email and only check my personal email if I’m expecting something.
6–7:30 pm: Before dinner, I played video games with my fiancé, mainly Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros.
9 pm-11 pm—Finally, we watched the new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the after-show, RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked. The show airs at 8 pm, but since we watched it through YouTube TV, we could start it later and skip through all the commercials.
Overall, I do a pretty good job of avoiding misinformation daily. The only reason I do is my ADHD. I have zero interest in looking at any content that is unfamiliar to me or not immediately of interest to me.
