The 7 Ways to Spot Media Bullsh*t

Fighting back against truth fatigue.

Is that investment opportunity real or fake? Can you trust what that influencer just said? Is the politician lying to you this time or not? Is that unusual looking woman really a guy? Is what you’re seeing a real shift in opinion or being created by a social media algorithm? Is that video real or AI? Is the news story you just read real or slanted? Is the supplement you just saw an ad for genuine or a rip-off? Did that podcaster say what they just said because they believe it or because they got paid to do it? Is that comment you just read from a real person, a bot, AI, part of an ad campaign, or even part of an influence campaign run by a foreign government?

Never before in recorded human history have people been beset by lies coming from every direction like this, and it makes it so difficult to know what’s real and what’s not that people are starting to have “truth fatigue.” For many people, it’s too much work to figure out what’s real and what isn’t.

This is extremely bad for societ…