What are people's expectations for authenticity and completeness? Have we really become more predisposed to accept what we read

without questioning it?

 The internet has revolutionized communication, business, fashion, entertainment and all works of life in the past couple of decades.

However, the popularity and freedom that comes with this ground-breaking innovation raise the vital question of authenticity.

 Information on the internet is readily available and the current economic situation of the world nowadays makes it complicated to look hard for verification.

People tend to believe almost everything they get to read whether from newspapers, adverts, books and almost every article on the internet. Many things contribute to this phenomenon. One of them is the fact that believing is naturally the simpler route besides the path of verification and understanding. And human minds and emotions are guided to snap into the direction of believing almost everything they see, hear or read on the internet because it requires just the one stage of being exposed to the information.

Taking what you find on the internet as fact without considerable verification can be very disastrous at times. The internet offers a voice to every opinion and is an ideal platform for a host of different agendas. This highlights the need to control the information we let out or share through the internet and then look out to make sure we absorb and question any online material we consume before registering as fact.

We can only be able to combat this widespread occurrence of believing everything we find on the internet by getting concrete support and no substantial opposition which is usually what kicks in some doubt about whatever we learn from the internet. Another barrier we will have to overcome is BIAS. We are sometimes unprepared to pursue the facts about so many issues because of Confirmation Bias which is very popular with online punditry. It inclines our thinking and beliefs towards a particular direction despite what the situation actually is.       

Many psychological experiments show that people are still drawn to believe and get influenced by what they hear see or read even when told of its invalidity or the uncertainty surrounding the entire theory. This is even made worse by the numerous social network platforms that connect people online such as Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram Twitter, etc. because people easily take any information shared or recommended by their friends, family, idols and role models as fact without investing so much in fact-checking it first. 

Companies of almost every industry are making use of the internet as the ultimate marketing tool and new strategies are being developed daily to make sure the vibe around their products is positive and believable no matter what.  

Beginning with news agencies, traffic is key and keeping your audience overwhelmed is sometimes the winning strategy. People also appreciate the truth and most often record anything gotten from certain reputable sources as fact especially if they are popular for always providing correct information.

It’s practically impossible to fact check every single detail of the information we get from the internet. However, many theories going about on the internet are not quite valid and can be very misleading. This only goes to further highlight the need to make sure anything you share or act upon from internet is properly verified.