Summary of Too many ‘candid’ social media videos are obviously, agonisingly fake. So why are viewers laughing? | Rebecca Shaw

Summary of Too many ‘candid’ social media videos are obviously, agonisingly fake. So why are viewers laughing? | Rebecca Shaw

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Too many ‘candid’ social media videos are obviously, agonisingly fake. So why are viewers laughing? | Rebecca Shaw


Yes, I’m talking about silly clips – but if people think entirely staged pranks are real then I fear for us allWith advances in technology including AI and ChatGPT, and increasingly realistic fake images everywhere, media literacy is diving towards an all-time low. There are many areas where a lack of critical thinking has had and will have devastating effects on society. I’m here to talk about something that is not as serious but that does have one daily impact – annoying me.It happens when I’m scrolling TikTok, or X, or Instagram (or one of the many other apps I use to make sure my brain is never alone with itself), and the algorithm serves me up a video it thinks I’ll like. It will be a video that lots of other people have watched, liked and commented on with a series of crying laughing emojis, or “LMFAO” or “omg so funny”. So with this forward sizzle, I click, excited and open-hearted, ready to laugh. Continue reading...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/20/too-many-candid-social-media-videos-are-obviously-agonisingly-fake-so-why-are-viewers-laughing

The article discusses the importance of media literacy in the age of technology and social media, where fake images and videos are becoming increasingly common. The author, Rebecca Shaw, shares her personal experience of being annoyed by fake content on social media, particularly on TikTok and Instagram, where people consume and share videos without questioning their authenticity. She argues that this lack of critical thinking can have devastating effects on society and implores people to take a few moments to think about what they're consuming.