Social media can be a very useful device but can also be a very hurtful when used incorrectly. And just because something reports a story first does not make it correct. This unfortunately happened when Twitter falsely identified the Boston Marathon suspects.
Last week two bombs were exploded at the Boston Marathon by two terrorist. It was a tragedy that killed three people and injured many more. After the bombing it was reported on twitter that the two suspects had been identified and their names were posted. This was the beginning of the viral story. After being tweeted it was than upload and pushed by redditt. When enough people get behind a story how can it not be true?
We as internet users easily forget how easy it is to believe in anything that is posted on the internet. We blindly believe things without evidence. This is a problem of our generation. Just because something is published on the internet does not mean it is truthful. We must question everything that is uploaded and ask for the evidence.
The false tweet temporarily smeared a missing Brown student. This can ruin lives if not used correctly. Social media is a very powerful tool. Sites like Redditt and Twitter give us so much power that we must use it with responsibility.
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