Fact Checking: Save Yourself Stress

I’m a reactionary person and in my world, I react and then pull myself back in. It is just my reality. When I say pull myself in, what I really mean is I start fact checking. In this day and age when anyone can post anything and make it sound professional or spot on with good facts. Things can get confusing very quickly. I try to tell folks that a blog is based on someone’s opinions. This is why blogs, to me, are so interesting. Blogs are an opportunity to pursue other methods, thoughts or ideas.  BUT, if you are truly seeking information, then it is critical to check your facts.
Medium shared this eye opening piece, “You’re the Fact Checker Now”. The short article explains how social media savvy young people still miss the mark in being able to identify between news and sponsored content. The author suggests that reader, work “laterally” through an article. For example, if you read a story and it mentions an organization, while reading, open up a new tab and research that group.  The article gives tips for researching and vetting information.
One reason I truly enjoy doing work for Allergic Living Magazine, as the Product Editor, is that every item we feature is fact checked three times. All articles and stories are fact checked several times. If something doesn’t check out, it is removed. I love this!
If we all listened to the headlines without further exploration, all of our children would have been cured of peanut allergies, we would believe that only EpiPens existed, not any other brands or options and I should be skinny by now from drinking an exotic juice.
I hope you get a few minutes to read the article and start fact checking away!
disclaimer: be ready for it... I’m Allergic Living Magazine biased for the reasons mentioned above. I love research and I love fact checking. I love magazines, the newspaper and even though social media makes me crazy at times, I like it too.