It’s a weird dynamic. A tragedy happens, everyone is grieving, and then someone writes a blog post about it and gets massive traffic. Massive ad dollars. They gained wealth from the tragedy.
I don’t believe any bloggers or sites write their articles thinking about that at first. But as you’re in this world long enough, you realize your income depends on clicks. So you make articles that get clicks, with less real concern about writing something of value.
And we’re the problem. We’re the ones who read it and perpetuate the problem. So here are fives types of online articles/blog posts we should really stop reading. (And certainly stop sharing.)
1. Articles “Exposing” a Christian Leader/Ministry
Certain sites and bloggers like to call themselves watchdogs for the Christian faith. They keep the faith “pure”. Really, they’re just trying to crucify anyone they remotely disagree with.
But if we’ll stop reading, they’ll stop posting. And there won’t be as many people criticizing and mudslinging in Christianity. We get enough opposition from those outside our faith. We don’t need to attack ourselves.
2. Articles from Highly Biased Sites
Hint: These are most of the links people post on their timeline.
There’s very little pure news anymore. It’s mostly opinion disguised as truth. And the reason people have gotten away from news so much is that people eat it up. Let’s stop giving them their clicks and we can start learning more about the truth.
3. Articles Where Rhetoric “Destroys” the Opposing View
“What this pastor said absolutely destroyed this pro-gay activist.” That sort of title gets a lot of clicks. But “destroyed”?! When do believers ever want to destroy someone? How is that in any way beneficial to our cause as Christians? Yeah, maybe the political agenda is furthered, but our witness is the thing that’s actually destroyed. Let’s not encourage that.
4. Overly “Urgent” Articles
If an article says the world is about to end, it probably isn’t. They probably just want your click. Remember when eating bacon was going to guarantee you cancer? It turns out, they miscalculated the statistic. It wasn’t actually that big of a deal.
5. Poorly Researched Articles
And finally, poorly researched articles. The bacon article could fit in there, but I’d go with anything that seems unbelievable. A simple Google search will quickly tell you whether or not you should click on a link.
Katy Perry isn’t moving to your small home town. Mr. Rogers didn’t have tattoos all over his arms. Let’s stop encouraging sloppy reporting and blatant lies.
We have the power to bring integrity back to reporting. Let’s stop clicking on and sharing things that are eroding truth and love.