The Last Word: TCU’s Guy Golan on Why Sharing Online Articles Doesn’t Make People Experts

“When we consume online information, most people make a decision about the content that they’re viewing within a few seconds, nanoseconds.”

Guy Golan
Associate Professor
Texas Christian University
.…on why sharing online articles doesn’t make people experts, via the Dallas Morning News.

Here's "who said what" in Dallas Innovates Every Day.Researchers at UT Austin published a study in July called “I share, therefore I know? Sharing online content—even without reading it—inflates subjective knowledge.” The study, published by the Society for Consumer Psychology, explored how sharing online content affects what people think they know.

Turns out, they think they know a lot—which isn’t necessarily the case at all.

Golan, who wasn’t involved in the study, told the DMN’s Adithi Ramakrishnan that it actually takes time to increase one’s social media literacy, instead of simply scanning a story and sharing it online.

“When we consume online information, most people make a decision about the content that they’re viewing within a few seconds, nanoseconds,” Golan told DMN. “And I think the first initial step is to encourage people to spend a little more time with the information.”

Golan believes people should hit the pause button before sharing something on social media. He told the DMN they should ask themselves 3 questions: What’s the source of the info; is it trustworthy; and does the shared headline explain enough to make it worthy of passing along to others? 

For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.

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