Lately in the news there has been much buzzing going around about the upcoming American lottery that is worth 1.3 billion dollars. A huge amount of money is up for grabs, and both Americans and Canadians alike are scrambling to try and get their hands on a winning ticket. Well that's all fine and dandy - and quite frankly, of no importance to me. But of course, with anything that is making the news it isn't too far behind that a meme will show it's face on the internet. Just look at how quickly all of those memes of Steve Harvey appeared after he accidentally announced the wrong winner at Miss Universe! It doesn't take long for someone out there to quickly put together a meme!
So, of course - there is a meme running it's course on the internet about this upcoming lottery. And I am sure that the creator had good intensions in mind ... but, well, take a look ....
Do you see the problem? Take a look at it this way ....
So .... math is important I guess .. but to me this just demonstrated a bigger problem ... people are just too quick to believe what they read on the internet! I can't tell you how many people decide to share this post of Facebook, believe it to be true - without even taking a minute to think for themselves! I am no math whiz ... but as soon as I saw this I said to myself ... the math just doesn't seem right!
But what amazes me more is just how many people DIDN'T notice this ... according to this article by Matt Novak, as of January 11 this meme had 253,266 likes and 574,007 shares!!! Wowza!
So I guess then the thing that bothers me the most is just how quickly people accept what they see and read on the internet. To me this is a big concern, to think that so many people don't really stop and take a moment to think for themselves. Here is a great article about how we can try and make things a little better for ourselves when reading things on the internet. Take a moment to give it a read.
Think of how much traffic the internet gets on a daily basis. Do you see a problem with what was discussed in this blog post? How do you feel about memes and the kind of impact they can have? What do you think about the millions and millions of bytes of information that comes across your computer screen every hour? And what measures can you take to maybe make a change? Have you ever fallen victim of maybe accepting what you read without taking a moment to think for yourself or do you know someone who has? Be honest and think about what this could mean or do to others and yourself. Think about this from a different perspective ... if others are quick to believe things that are on the internet, what kind of responsibility do we have when it comes to posting information? Reflect and respond.
