Reporters rely on credible sources. It’s what makes the fourth estate work. But what happens when the line between credible news and fake news blurs – as it does now? A recent study by Pew Research Center on News Use Across Social Media Platforms (2017) shows that the number of people who rely on social media for their news is on the rise. The whole study is worth a read, and no doubt that we will be revisiting it in future posts, but for now let’s focus on Facebook. Facebook

The past month’s events provided no shortage of opinions on what is – or isn’t – free speech. Setting aside the opinions of the President and the NFL, let’s look at what constitutes “free” speech online. No one loves The Google more than we do, but if we really think about it, is Google dictating the content you consume? The short answer is – duh – of course it is! We all as consumers understand how ad dollars and SEO works on a basic level. The more dollars a company pays, t

As media becomes more ubiquitous, naturally, we consume (and crave!) more of it. The easier it is to consume, the more of it we want. Perhaps most helpful to this trend is that “the media” now goes where we go via our mobile devices. So it’s no shock that, according to eMarketer data, the average time spent per day with “Major Media - Digital” climbed to 5 hours and 43 minute in 2017 and is expected to reach 6 hours and 1 minute in 2018. Check out the chart below. What is als

We’ve all heard a version of this riddle: A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly, and the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and exclaims "I can't operate on this boy." "Why not?" the nurse asks."Because he's my son," the doctor responds. How is this possible? While outdated (and blatantly sexist – but that’s for another post…), this riddle is all about assumptions. We all have them - but many of them are just wrong. What’

We need a new word for “Friends.” How many people on your social channels do you actually KNOW? I personally have more than 4,800 “friends” on Facebook, yet I probably I only know 10 percent of them. Are they my friends? Not really. But do we have a shared common interest or friend? Maybe. One definition of friend is “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.” Do you have “mutual affection” for every one of your Twitter followers? While there i

Social media makes it easy to be polarizing. Black or White, Yes or No, Republican or Democrat. Often, there is little room for nuance, context and thoughtful discourse. As the “virtual” iteration of who we are, social media often gives us a one-dimensional look at ourselves and our “friends.” Let’s look at an example. Sue may have expressed support for Hillary Clinton on her Facebook page. To many, that one “thing” about Sue can tell you many other things about her (she is p

This election season has brought to light a particularly virulent strain of fake news. It’s true that people promoting fake information is as old as time, but the internet has made it easy for anyone to create social media profiles and websites in order to post whatever they want under the guise of “journalism.” In a disturbing study by BuzzFeed, they found that fake election news outperformed legitimate news on Facebook. Apparently, this is the new normal for news. The debat

If there has ever been a time that better highlights the power of like-mindedness and collective sentiment, I can’t think of one. Social media pages lit up as a result of the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States last week. Neighbors, family, friends, co-workers, high school classmates, you name it, took to social media to vent their frustrations or their joy in hopes of being heard. Some turned to social media to commiserate, others turned to

We hear this term a lot – especially in the last few months because of the U.S. presidential election. With our country more polarized than ever, many find solace in interacting with like-minded groups or what we like to call them at VISVA, those with Collective Sentiment. All too often we hear things like “oh John is a good guy, but we just can’t talk politics.” This self-sorting is happening all the time. Using “John” as the example, let’s take this one step further. Maybe

Part Two of Two Our brains don’t stop growing and developing the day we graduate from high school or college. Far from it! The human brain is continuing to develop throughout our lives and scientists and doctors agree that you need to feed it in order for it to flourish. Here are a few ways to “feed your brain”: Do a puzzle. Jigsaw, crossword, logic problems – it doesn’t seem to matter which kind. Your brain loves it! Tackle a jigsaw puzzle a few nights a week instead of watc