Fear and Social Media

 Fear is always being incorporated into social media. Many people will use it as an engaging tool to bring people to watch their whole video or they might even create a whole for views and likes. 

These days it is very easy to believe a lie on social media if it is spreading around everywhere. When there are many sources saying different things it can be hard to know which is true, that is why we have scholarly resources that we can actually trust. Recently there was some misinformation on Hurricane Helene and Milton, part of it was that FEMA, who helps in times of disaster to evacuate people. Many had spread rumors saying they were done helping out and stopped evacuations, but in fact it was just traffic that was delaying all these evacuations which was not their fault. This put fear into many people trying to leave the areas affected but they were just rumors made up.

The picture above shows a picture of the pope wearing a Balenciaga puffer jacket, but it is ai generated and it went viral. When it went viral many people were shocked that he would wear something like that as pope. The use of AI, which can now create fake images very easily with one click, can also impersonate people's voices very accurately. Sometimes I can be scrolling on a social media platform and find a video of a certain celebrity saying things which they have never said before. It is a scary thought knowing the impact of celebrities or people with higher authority on their audience. 

How do you believe social media uses fear?