Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [social-media]

websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

59 questions
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Is the trending Facebook "privacy notice" necessary and/or effective?

This facebook post has gone viral among my friends PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning - any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or…
Binary Worrier
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Did GOP senators say these things about Kavanaugh allegations?

I saw the following screenshot on Twitter: The picture shows an MSNBC screen with the header "GOP SENATORS ON KAVANAUGH ALLEGATIONS" with pictures and the following quotes: "I'll listen to the lady, but we're going to bring this to a close." Sen.…
Ellen Spertus
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Is this €150k beach club bill real?

This bill, with a total amount of over €150,000, from a beach club in Monaco is currently circulating on social media. Is it real? I've checked the website of the beach club; some of the more common drinks and dishes on the menu are in the same…
Glorfindel
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Is there a Russian social media game called "Blue Whale" that incites self-violence and suicide?

According to the Daily Mail: Police in Russia are investigating a rush of teenage suicide attempts amid fears that they may have been manipulated by sinister social media groups. Two schoolgirls fell to their deaths from a building on the weekend…
Sakib Arifin
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Is Social Networking harmful to mind or body?

Susan Greenfield, an English pharmacologist, is quoted by the New York times as saying: My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have…
Sklivvz
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Can employers check your facebook?

I've seen a million articles that say basically, "Be very careful what you put on Facebook because employers check that before they hire you... would you want them seeing pictures of your drunken party?" These advice articles never address the…
BlueWhale
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Are these photos of burned home surrounded by pristine trees in California due to the forest fires real?

These photos are circulating on social media. Are they real? How can a forest fire burn homes in the center of a forest without burning the trees? Portion of Paradise, CA after the "Forest Fire". No, we'll call it what it is: murder. Because…
Chloe
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Does YouTube send every video to every subscription inbox?

According to this video by The Game Theorists, YouTube does not push every video a channel makes to all of that channel's subscriber inboxes. Rather, a subscriber only sees videos from channels they commonly interact with, because that's better…
Calvin's Hobbies
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Is this video of an attack on an elderly Asian woman authentic?

A video of what appears to be an attack on an elderly Asian woman has been posted on social media, with the following description: UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON ELDERLY ASIAN WOMAN A 69-year-old woman was walking when a man assaulted and robbed her Thursday…
wopay68268
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Did Maureen Healy, who was shot in the head by Feds in Portland, write the following press release?

There is a "press release" circulating on the internet. It purports to have been written by Maureen Healy, the protestor who received a blow to the head from a projectile in Portland, Oregon. This morning on Facebook, a friend posted the image…
Astor Florida
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Does social media cause permanent damage to concentration capability?

In this TEDxtalk (transcript is here), the speaker claims that there is a growing amount of research that shows that spending large amounts of time on social media permanently damages the capability of the brain to concentrate: We have a growing…
qurio
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Are 63% of Instagram users 'miserable'?

A few articles report this statistic that 63% of Instagram users are…
sciencectn
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Does Instagram withhold likes to increase usage?

Matt Mayberry, who works at a California startup called Dopamine Labs, says it's common knowledge in the industry that Instagram exploits this craving by strategically withholding "likes" from certain users. If the photo-sharing app decides you…
Robert Dundon
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Did Near, a prominent emulator developer, take their own life?

A couple of weeks ago, there was news in the gaming-related media that Near, the developer of SNES emulators, has reportedly died by suicide. However, the proof of this is an anonymous document posted by somebody who claims to be Near's real life…
Ruslan Oblov
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Did a baby named Netflix de Jesús get registered this year in Colombia?

I was recently sent this image via social media, claiming that a baby with given name Netflix de Jesús had been registered earlier this year in Colombia: This is not entirely an implausible claim, but it does sound just a liiiiittle bit too good…
E. P.
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