On the other side of the world, in Pakistan, some goodhearted soul made a video where a boy is taken for a ride, by a stranger, on a scooter. But then he is returned—happy day! The clip was meant to be a warning about “stranger danger.” In India, some dark-hearted troll snipped out the ending, and released to social media his anonymous clip of a boy being child abducted, saying the boy was killed.
Grown male adults began dying across India, killed by villagers fearful of child abduction. One set of deaths was an entire carload of young men travelling through town, another was a lone man sent by the government to—get this—warn villagers about that false social media.
In Britain a stranger killed three young girls. The police had barely started investigating when some person in Asia put onto British social media the fact that the killings were done by a dirty ungrateful asylum seeker. Not so. It was a British-born person, as it later turned out, but only after riots and property damage had spread and lasted for days.
Here at home this summer people needed to evacuate for a wild fire. Google Maps mistakenly said that part of highway 16 was out. Social media told people to use highway 40—but it was a logging road. Such roads are gravel at best, never intended for small cars.
“Many people had to be rescued after their vehicles got bogged down.” And in the same region, dark smoke clouds meant “people posted that residents should be ready to evacuate, even though no official word had come.” (Footnote)
Such nonsense! If young Orson Welles and his theatre of social media say that Martian space cylinders have landed in the New Jersey marshes then for heavens sake don’t grab a shotgun and evacuate, not the way folks did after that 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast. Or at least—since UFOs are real—don’t evacuate until checking with traditional media where reporters share a culture of journalism standards.
Of course we are only human; it’s hard to think straight when we are scared. Or angry. Or feeling any strong emotions that the big computer companies want us to have so they can exploit us. That’s why it’s so important to establish a habit, during calmer times, of never swallowing social media, hook line and sinker. Not until after consulting normal media.
Hey, be especially suspicious of any forwarded message that wants you to feel outrage.
By refusing to blindly believe social media, the life you save may be your own.
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Sean Crawford
Camrose
July
2025
Footnotes:
Source of quotes: Edmonton Journal, Friday July 25, page A4. The quote continues, “Nissen’s message is simple: don’t trust social media, and get your information right from the source in time of disaster.”
An example of outrage: What if someone told me, from social media, that Roe versus Wade, the classic pro-choice abortion case of over 50 years ago, advocated that abortion was just fine at eight months? I might say, “What? GRRR!”—The same knee-jerk that causes people to forward false media. But only until I checked out normal media, by a web search. The time advocated was only up to three months.
The example is real. Was I morally obligated confront that believer in social media? Maybe, but since both of us are only human, no I didn’t.
Similarly, I might be outraged, on the telephone, talking long distance to the US south, to a believer in MAGA. But in their case surely I could guiltlessly leave them to their Kool-Aide: letting their fellow yankees deal with them.
The politically correct (PC) term for UFOs now being used by the US Air Force is UAP, meaning Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon—but what normal person can remember that? (Link)
The new wording, with “herd-instinct” PC, is surely from fear, like how a big fear that “rockets” might be confused with crazy science fiction in newspaper Sunday comics caused the bureaucrats to say “jet propulsion laboratory.” If you are afraid you might be confused, UFO-wise, with steel saucers, then plead with your common sense congressman on the armed services board, begging him not to restore the common sense term UFO. Meanwhile, I feel clear and fine saying the old term.
