Very often I see posts shared freely on Facebook with warnings about some person and detailed story of what they have ‘done’, and I always ask myself, how many of these posts are true? How many people actually take the time to actually vet the story before puffing and passing? I ask because I believe things aren’t always what they seem.
I remember seeing an episode of psychology-inspired series Bull and being blown away by how perfectly they showed this assertion. In one episode, a white female police officer enters a restaurant’s bathroom to do her business. After a few minutes in, a drunk black male burst through the door, and after a short scuffle for the officer’s gun, she shoots him in the arm. After a court process, it is discovered that the pair are actually an item who planned the whole thing in an attempt to get money from the state.
The idea was to capitalise on the black versus white narrative. America is a country riddled with police brutality, and the two knew very well that people would be easily triggered and put pressure on the state to pay to make this all ‘go away’. On the outside (that is before the truth was discovered), many saw this as an open and shut case. It was too obvious; a black man shot by a white cop, why do we even need to deliberate? But as the truth showed, it wasn’t too obvious.
As for the first example, it is very easy to take a person’s photo and create a false story about them being an abuser or one who ran away from his dad duties. Does this make the person guilty of all that I would have accused them of doing? How would you know for sure? Would you be sharing because you believe the story, or because you think the deed ‘suits the person’?
Some stories have more than two sides, and only when you take the time to cancel out your preconceived biases and search for the actual truth, will you make the best decisions.
What you know, what is on the surface, and the truth, may be three completely different things. It is very important to not always take what is in front of you as the gospel. We cannot allow ourselves to be passive participants of life, with so many research tools at our disposal!
I am not perfect nor do I know everything, but I would like to think that there is so much we are yet to discover in this world. We cannot continue to react on what we see on the surface, and surely we cannot be this easy to convince.
We need to be very cautious not to be a continuation of the tarnishing of people’s names and images. If you continue to pass on stories without reading between the lines or vetting their truth, you might see yourself sharing one that has false information about you without even noticing it! Be observant.
Cover image source: _hackernoon.com_
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