Mark Twain quotes: 10 favorites on
his birthday
10 classic quotes from Mark Twain to celebrate his 176th birthday
· By Husna Haq, Monitor correspondent
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man
who can't read them."
3 of 10
02
Fighting fake news: How to tell fact
from fake
Today, the words “fake news” naturally lead you to think of quotes by
President Donald Trump. The president has been at war with news outlets,
accusing any negative comment about him and his campaign of being “fake news”.
He famously tweeted: “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth. A great
danger to our country.”
Regardless of political opinion, if there’s one thing Trump’s got right
in his head at least, it’s the definition of fake news. Fake news is
deliberately published hoaxes and disinformation that seeks to spread a certain
ideology, or to boost popularity on media.
They are designed to mislead and snag profits from readers’ gullibility
– And it is dangerous. Hoaxes, such as crime stories, create tension and
potential harm, and drama where there is none. It can elevate individuals to
unjustified success; it can reputations beyond repair.
It’s also incredibly prevalent and difficult to discern. 14 percent of
adults admitted to sharing a questionable political news story in the U.S. in
2016, amounting to millions of damaging stories floating around the cyber
sphere.
The solution: education and vigilance. We may not be able to completely
eradicate false stories, but there is plenty that can be done to minimize this
risk – and avoid the embarrassment of telling our friends an incorrect story.
It begins with us. We have written a story about how to educate ourselves from
spreading fake news, this piece is sort of a reminder.
How to spot fake news
The rise of fake news means more homework for us readers – but it’s
necessary. If we are to ensure what we’re reading is legitimate, good reading
habits are essential to make sure we’re reading the good stuff and not fluff.
Cross referencing with other sources
A good rule of thumb: verify stories with two other credible sources.
The more publications are saying the same thing – each with their own research
and sources – the more likely it is that a story is true. While it doesn’t
completely eliminate the possibility of all outlets being cheated, you can bet
it’s a good start.
And with Google around, finding other similar stories is a search bar
away.
Fact checking for details
Statistics drive news. It’s the crux of a story that gives it weight and
scale in the real world. You may not be too concerned about a robbery until you
realise how much was stolen, or concerned about the economy until you realise
the percentage in which it has dropped.
The danger is, these numbers are too easy to manipulate, and most readers
don’t bother looking up sources and databases.
Turns out, it’s actually pretty easy to verify statistics. Government
sites are a good source for national statistics in all sorts of departments;
FactCheck.org is great for political news; and the CIA database is a safe bet
for information on general information on other countries – yes, it’s all
public!
Read deeper into the story
When juicy headlines pop up, it’s often easy to react first and tell
your friends about it, despite only reading the headline and a paragraph or
two. We miss out bigger details that are crucial to making sure the story is
credible; worse still, we miss other details and get our facts wrong, creating
more fake news.
It’s a useful habit to take a minute more to get the full picture, and
not leap too quickly to conclusions.
Look up the author
This is where your skill in stalking people on social media comes in
handy. If your news comes from a source that isn’t well-known, look up the
writer.
For starters, make sure he’s real – it’s immediately fishy if he doesn’t
seem to exist. Has he written any other works that seem credible? Look out for
old columns and publications he’s written for and you can come to a safer
conclusion.
How to stop fake news
Facebook and Google have employed countless moderators and are
brainstorming all sorts of ideas to restrict the spread of fake news. But with
so few of them and so many of us users, there’s only so much they can do.
The onus is on us to do our fair share of policing and making sure we
don’t contribute to fake news ourselves.
Stop before you share
We love being the source of knowledge, and one way to impress others is
by reposting viral news and looking well-informed. But take a moment before you
hit send to run through the steps to spot fake news. You’ll be doing your list
of followers a big favour – and perhaps spare them some shock.
Call them out
One way to get on the attack is to flag news sources that are blatantly
spreading false reports. With more users notifying the authorities, it gets them
on their tail and helps with the efficiency of policing of our social media
platforms. You’re doing them a great service.
03
Keep Better Track of Your Reading
Habits With Bookly
iOS: I love to read, I do. When I was a kid, I was that kid who would go
to the library and—no joke—check out a huge stack of books in one sitting
(mainly Choose Your Own Adventure titles, which I loved). I wish I had more
time to read nowadays, but I’m confident that applying a little geekery to my
literary pursuits might help.
The iOS app Bookly (Sorry, Android fans) allows you to apply an insane
amount of stats-tracking to your book collection. Its free version is packed
with plenty of useful features for organizing your physical book collection,
tracking your reading time, and receiving useful statistical information about
the kinds of books you like to read and how long it takes you to get through
them. It even gives you an estimated time for when you might finish your
current novel, based on your calculated pace. Heck, you can even mark when
you’ve lent a book in your collection out to someone (and track who has it).
Its pro version is (annoyingly) locked behind a subscription, because
everyone has to make money, but I’d almost consider splurging $30 for the
annual membership. It gets rid of Bookly’s annoying advertisements and, more
importantly, allows you to keep track of more than ten books at once.
Getting started with Bookly
Adding a title to your Bookly collection couldn’t be any easier. With
the app’s “My Books” tab open, just tap on its plus icon in its upper-left
corner. You can search online for the book you’re reading, but I found it
easier to use the app to scan a book’s ISBN number—its barcode—to automatically
fill up all the key details. Take a picture of the cover if the app doesn’t
pull it in for you, tap “Save Book,” and start reading.
And by “start reading,” I mean that you should now tap the Start Reading
button under one of your books when you begin a reading session. The app will
keep track of how long you read for and, by inputting the page you got to,
you’ll receive a little estimate of how long it might take you to finish the
book at this rate. You can add any thoughts that pop into your head while
you’re reading the book, as well as any scintillating quotes you want to
remember for later.
I found it useful to use the app to track a reading goal—how many hours
you want to dedicate to the print (or digital) page over the course of a month.
The app can help nudge you along just so you don’t fall short, and you can set
an even more ambitious yearly goal if you know you want to get through a
certain number of books. This feature, sadly, is locked behind Bookly’s pro
subscription, which costs you $2.50 a month if you opt for an annual
subscription.
Otherwise, Bookly is filled with irritating advertising—its one
weakness. But I’ll stomach the occasional (bordering on frequent) tiny video
ads to get a better snapshot of my reading activity. Plus, this means I can
stop using random clutter around my bed as a bookmark.
Yes, Bookly goes a bit heavy on the advertising.
I love being able to see quick stats on my reading sessions, which can
be a useful reminder that I’m not dedicating as much time to learning about
French cooking as I had hoped.
1 / 2
Do you have an iOS or Android app that you absolutely love? Tell us
about it: david.murphy@lifehacker.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment