Fake News No More

We all know Fake News has become a huge issue ever since the most recent election, and Facebook is here to tell you that is a thing of the past. Their most recent plan of attack being a new tool on Facebook called "Trust Indicators". The tool was created in collaboration with The Trust project which is an international consortium of news and digital companies. The indicator itself is fairly simple, its basically just a small icon at the bottom of each post that attaches a credible site from which the post received its information. While this seems like a great step towards making news on Facebook more credible it is still faced with several problems. The first one being most people may just overlook the icon to begin with since it is such a small change, but the bigger problem comes from the fact that Facebook has only given 9 news outlets the ability to use this feature so far. The images shown, give a better idea of how the feature actually works. 

If Facebook can expand the number of outlets while continuing to perfect this structure I think this could have a huge impact on the issue at hand. So many of these "Fake News" articles simple comes from ignorant people failing to check their sources. This feature will not only force publishers to be much more aware and honest of the things they are posting, but will also cause consumers of the information to maybe think twice about where they are getting their information from before feeling so strongly about the topic. Information is everywhere these days and yet there are people out there that still refuse to educated themselves before speaking. People develop such strong issues on topics before even fully understanding what it is they are speaking on. The hate has gotten out of control and I think this is a great step towards closing the gap. A lot of the "Fake News" stories have really fueled the fire and getting them back in check could really help get American citizens back all on the same page. It's just like your mother always told you to think before you speak, but it's now more of a check your facts before you attack.

Strange Reality

The newest season of Stranger Things hit Netflix on November 3, and while most people have been blowing up social media about positive things associated with the show, some of the younger stars have recently been under attack due to the huge media surrounding the show. The cast has been doing a lot of publicity for the show recently and some fans are not happy about how the kids respond to their newly acquired fame. Most of this drama was sparked after one fan tweeted to Finn Wolfhard, calling him "heartless" amongst other nasty things after refusing to stop and say hi to a group of fans waiting for him outside his hotel. 

Where the story really gets interesting is how quickly fellow cast mate, Shannon Purser, who plays Barb in the series as well as other former child actor stars, such as Sophie Turner, from the hit series Game of Thones, came to Wolfhard's defense. Shannon Purser took to twitter to share her feeling about the issue at hand. Tweeting, "Ok no. No actor is under any obligation to stop for anyone. Finn is an incredible kind human. But he is human and needs a break too." Sophie also tweeted out saying, “Damn… seeing fully grown adults wait outside the ‘Stranger Things’ kids’ hotels etc , and then abuse them when they don’t stop for them…Is super weird,” she began. “A. What adult in their right mind waits for a CHILD outside their hotel and B is then is offended when the CHILD doesn’t stop.” She then goes on to explain that she had encountered similar situation growing up as a Game on Thrones star. Her main point being these are children and regardless of the industry you need to be respectful of how you treat them. 

At the end of the day these "stars" are real people and they don't owe their "fans" anything. These actors in our favorite shows have become so involved in our lives that we often forget they are more than just an actor on a screen. These are real people just trying to live their life and we need to be respectful of them. Especially if they are children still trying to get adjust to the lifestyle of being famous. Finn eventually took to twitter saying, "Hey everybody! I don't wanna ex-communicate anyone from this fandom, but if you are for real you will not harass my friends, or co-workers. Ya'll know who you are," he tweeted. "Why I even have to tweet that, I don't know. Anyone who calls themselves a "fan" and actively goes after someone for literally acting and doing their job is ridiculous. Think b4 ya type boiiii." At the end of the day the situation just really shows how much class the children have and how they are honestly more mature than a lot of full grown adults these days.