“Real or Not Real?” Spotting Fake News
We are fortunate enough to be alive at a time in which all the information we could ever dream of learning is at our fingertips. I’ve always lived in a world with instant access to the internet; I could always Ask Jeeves or even text ChaCha when I was away from my computer, and got my first iPhone just before starting high school. I cannot imagine living in a world without the ability to pull up a video of my favorite Real Housewives fight whenever I want to see it. (Mine is the Amsterdam fight from Beverly Hills. If you know, you know.) Or worse, growing up without Real Housewives at all… I shudder at the thought. Those who forget history… Instant access to information does not mean instant access to reliable information, though; the spread of misinformation is as old as time itself. With each technological advancement, more opportunities for misinformation arise: in the 1480s, Dominican friars used the recently-invented printing press to spread a wildly successful, Pope-approve...