If you frequent some other more mainstream social media sites you have probably experienced this yourself.

Not going to name any names or anything cough cough Facebook cough cough. Have you ever been browsing on your least favorite social media site when you should be on steemit and you see a meme that is clearly presenting false information as a fact? These can be clearly politically charged but can also be something silly but totally wrong.

Like if everyone is talking about how it's really neat that daddy long legs have just 3 legs and can hop 40 feet in one leap you would maybe want to point out that they have 8 legs and can't hop that far in one leap. This gnawing part of you would be screaming "That is wrong! They are sharing wrong information! Correct it!" but nowadays if you were to politely point out the fallacy you would get a swarm of people letting you know that you musn't be the life of any parties and calling you a spoil sport, etc.

Usually, I see one guy politely pointing out interesting facts and then 200+ people in the comment thread hounding him for ruining the "fun" of the meme. When did sharing clearly false information turn into people's idea of fun? And who are they protecting? The page that is sharing what they know to be total crap usually in an effort to get "fans" and thus acquire monetary gain?

Here is a personal example to illustrate my point.

I saw someone about 6 months ago on my page share this viral meme:

They clearly believed this was true and were presenting it as such so I decided to let my friend know that this was not in fact something that happened and it was photoshopped. I also shared the fact that they did illuminate the white house in rainbow lights to celebrate LBGTQ rights. I figured they may want some actual news to present their point. Instead, they got angry at me and insinuated they don't feel like checking every meme they share because it's the message that matters.

But is that true? Is saying the president and vice president did something they never did to push an agenda really virtuous? Why is it suddenly the worst thing to do to point out misinformation? I support LBGTQ people and their rights and fall under "B" myself but I still would want to know if I was sharing clearly fabricated information to push my agenda. It does nothing good for a cause to share lies.

When non politically charged memes present "harmless" misinformation:

Here is something I saw last week:

Sure, the woman was a bit heated over this bird and fish video but probably because she is sick of seeing people eat up misinformation. Regardless of how harmless it may seem people are now conditioned to swallow bite-sized memes and rip the head off of anybody who argues with it. Also, is it necessary to call a 65-75 year old woman a bitch for being annoyed at a false heading.

I remember when I had fun actually LEARNING information about nature and animals. When my grandmother would present me with facts about how they live and I would eagerly listen. Never did I get annoyed that these animals weren't being friends just like in my children's books. If you want animals that are all best friends pick up some books for toddlers.

What is your opinion on this sort of attitude? Am I being dramatic? Are we barreling into "idiocracy" territory? Is presenting false information ever really harmless?