Fake news or truth?

I came across this quote today, and I wanted to share it with you. Let it sink in: "Fake news and rumors thrive online because few verify what's real and always bias towards content that reinforces their own biases." (Ryan Higa) As scripture points out, "Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart." (Proverbs 18:8) Have you ever noticed how we are drawn to rumors that 'fit our biases' in life? We listen with intensity to those words, even spreading them at times, all because we are drawn to their 'intent' or perhaps even their 'ambiguity'. But...are they real? Do we check them out? Or do we get 'drawn in' by the words?

I did a little research online, asking why we humans circulate so many half-true, or utterly false statements. Here are just a few things I observed in my research:

- Where a lack of clear information abounds, we make things up that 'fit' whatever it is we believe to be the truth. That may not seem like a big deal, but if whatever has happened to us in life begins to bias what we 'insert' into whatever 'truth' is being circulated, we are helping to 'fill in' missing information with things that don't even belong in the story.

- When people perceive there is an urgency to the information, even when they only have part of it, a lot of 'conversation' begins to occur around that 'urgent message'. We may not have known the 'urgency' existed before we heard the tiniest tidbit of information about it, but once that sense of urgency is created in our emotions, we can plunge headlong into it, carrying that sense of urgency toward a sense of frenzy and drama beyond the scope of whatever happened.

- We are curious people and like to know things about other people. In fact, there is a periodical published with that very title! Valid or not, we begin to 'converse' about 'people' as though we know them, what is happening in their lives, and what they must be going through. We don't always have to 'be in the know' about others' lives, but some like that sense of 'knowing more' that comes when we begin to 'dig into' someone's past or present life stories.

Rumors will abound. Will we be the ones who take a lack of clear information and create our own 'truth' about the moment? Will we create a false sense of urgency around one tiny piece of information, blowing it entirely out of proportion? Will we take our curiosity about the lives of others and create our own story about 'their story'? Just askin...