Can we talk about that stat that 90% of viral news stories are shared without being read first?

I stumbled on this fact from a study by Columbia University last week. They tracked 2,500 people on Facebook and found that only 1 in 10 actually clicked the article before hitting share. The rest just shared based on the headline alone. I started digging into it because my cousin kept forwarding me wild claims about vaccines and I got tired of fact checking him. So I pulled up the full PDF from the study and it blew my mind. It said things like disaster stories and celebrity rumors are the most shared without reading. Now I wonder how many of us are guilty of this too. Has anyone else seen this study or got a stat that made you rethink how you share stuff online?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_kelly912mo ago

Ask your cousin if he even read the full vaccine article before sending it, or was he just reacting to the headline? I think the worst part is when these stories hit your feed and everyone shares the same outrage without clicking through. Like, I almost shared a story about a celebrity saying something wild last week, then I actually read it and the headline completely twisted what they meant. Did the study mention if people get defensive when you call them out on sharing without reading?

evan_wilson182mo ago

Oh man, I've been there. My uncle sends me stuff all the time and I just started replying with "did you read past the first paragraph" and it actually made him stop. What worked for me was keeping it light, like "hey I know you're busy but the actual study said something different" rather than accusing them directly. @gavin_kelly91 you're right about the defensiveness though - my friend got really mad when I pointed out he shared a fake quote from 2012, so now I just send the real article link after they share something with a "oh interesting, here's what I saw about that" and let them figure it out. The study thing about defensiveness is real, people dig in harder if you call them out, so I've learned to just plant the info and move on.

owens.cameron1mo ago

Wait, do we really need to vet every single thing people send before they share it though? I get where you're coming from, but I've found that sometimes people share stuff because they trust the source, not because they read every word themselves. My cousin sends me articles all the time too, and maybe he does skim the headline, but he also knows the authors and trusts their track record. I think we're being a little too hard on people who share things without reading the full nine pages of a study. To me, it's more about the conversation that happens after, like you can ask questions and dig deeper together, rather than putting everyone through a reading comprehension test before they can hit send. And honestly, if someone shares something that ends up being misleading, I just ask them about it later and we talk it out, no need to make them feel stupid for it. Sometimes keeping it casual works better than calling them out right away.

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