THE SPECTATOR: DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media can be a dangerous thing. Social media that comes from misinformed people, or that is enflamed by bad people, is even worse. Sometimes posters think they know or understand the facts, even when they are far from the truth. Bad people who know better choose to stir the pot to incite more people. Some of that is what took place two weeks ago concerning the data center coming to Brenham’s Southwest Industrial Park. Here are some examples of things that were said on social media:
“I heard the mayor owned the land that was sold to the data center!”
“Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s husband is on the board of directors for the data center!”
“The data center will raise electricity and water rates for all of us!”
“I’m sure there were payoffs under the table to City Council members!”
“Brenham is running out of water and having to pump water from somewhere else. The Railroad Commission is wanting to tap into what little we have left!”
“The Chamber is bought and paid for! They don’t care!”
None of those statements are true, yet dozens of people accepted them as fact and commented about them. Don’t get me wrong…I think it’s great for the community to pay attention to what the City and County are doing. I’ve never seen that many people walking toward City Hall to attend a meeting. However, many were fed poor information through social media. And when someone commented with actual facts, they were dismissed and ignored. This led to such an outcry that one Facebook page was calling for people to attend the County Commissioners Meeting and voice their opposition to the Moorman and Tate office renovation, all because someone said the new data center was opening an office downtown. The administrators of these pages need to take some responsibility and remove posts that they know to be untrue. Allowing a bunch of false information to be posted, followed by others piling on, can lead to some serious consequences if something bad happens. And if you feel inclined to post a comment on social media about a subject you know nothing about, perhaps it is better to stop yourself, rather than remove all doubt about what you do and do not know. Tomorrow I’ll discuss some of the more dangerous social media pages in our area. And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.