this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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2024-11-11

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A new study of 35 million news links circulated on Facebook reports that more than 75% of the time they were shared without the link being clicked upon and read

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[–] Kintarian@lemmy.world 72 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I don't read 90% of the articles because they're mostly crap.

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

This article is about sharing links without having read the content, not just scrolling past or commenting without reading first

Edit: a more accurate headline would be

Facebook users probably won't read beyond this headline before sharing it, researchers say

[–] Kintarian@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Oh, ok. It seemed they were talking about people only reading the headlines, then sharing with people who only read the headlines.

[–] Kintarian@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

At first the author states:

The findings, which the researchers said suggest that social media users tend to merely read headlines and blurbs rather than fully engage with core content, appeared today (Nov. 19) in Nature Human Behavior. While the data were limited to Facebook, the researchers said the findings could likely map to other social media platforms and help explain why misinformation can spread so quickly online.

This implies all social media users. Later it mentions sharing information.

If I cared , I would read the paper. I think the author didn't do a very good job from headline on.

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago

I know they think it might generalize to other platforms, but there's little evidence to say so, and I doubt the percentage is nearly as bad on other platforms, especially Lemmy (which is the only social media I use, so the only thing relevant to me and many others here)

There's likely also a high percentage of people who form opinions about and comment on headlines without reading the content, but that's not what this paper measured

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Right? Do you expect me to click on 90% of articles?

Social media is a filter. I'm using it to figure out what is worth clicking on.

[–] Kintarian@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Politics, sensationalism, click bait, fear mongering. A lot of content is useless to me.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

And there are a bajillion of them, and all completely random. You could read for the rest of your life and not get through a single day's worth of shared articles. That said, you really should read something before sharing it. That part is just stupid.