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Jeff Dorris

Deliberations from Dorris

Jeff Dorris is the Editor of the Delta Dunklin Democrat

Editorial

Facebook-fact or fiction?

Saturday, January 25, 2020

We live in a time where the majority of people live in fear.

A recent survey by Chapman University listed close to 100 fears that plague Americans.

They range from financial security, illness, and terrorist attacks to flying, ghosts, and clowns.

Americans are becoming more and more afraid.

One of our biggest fears as a community is keeping our children safe.

This week a Facebook post of some Kennett Middle School 8th graders sparked huge concerns and initiated a police investigation.

The video showed a group of juveniles flashing gang signs and one juvenile brandishing a pistol.

There was no audio.

Soon posts were popping up that a threat had been made to the school.

They’re going to shoot up the whole school, declared one post.

Question- How do you know they’re going to shoot up the school? How do you know this is true?

Answer- It’s all over Facebook.

Therein lies a problem.

People today assume that if it’s on Facebook, it must be true.

Remember there was no audio on this video.

Is there a problem?

Yes. When juveniles are carrying around nine millimeter pistols, there is a problem.

Not a Kennett Middle School problem, but a community problem.

A society problem.

My point with this column is simply to make people aware of the dangers of social media and it’s ability to stoke fears.

Social media posts can be extremely damaging.

It’s not all baby photos and grandma’s cookie recipes.

According to a recent Google survey, 59 percent of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed on-line, while spreading false rumors on-line is the most common form of cyber-bullying.

That same survey stated 49 percent of teens claim their parents do nothing to monitor their devices.

Another problem.

There is no doubt that in our society fear is on the rise.

However, don’t be so quick to believe everything you see or hear, or in the case of this video, don’t hear, on social media.

There are plenty of actual dangers out there.

We don’t need Facebook conjuring up more of them.

See you out there.

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