Matthew 10:16Common English Bible (CEB)
16 “Look, I’m sending you as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be wise as snakes and innocent as doves.
I just saw an ad that promised that “these sheets will change your lives”. Um, nope, not even close and it brought home the point about not believing everything you read on the internet.
We have probably all been guilty of passing on misinformation. It is usually innocent enough and doesn’t cause great harm. However, we are seeing it weaponized to the extreme now in our social discourse. Human nature tends to work against us in this regard to a certain degree. We read things from sources we like and don’t believe things from sources we don’t like, especially if they report things that don’t fit into our preconceived beliefs. However, when we don’t at least try to obtain information from a source that goes against our confirmation biases, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment.
I know that I am a voracious reader and not everyone is. That’s okay. I have fallen victim to reading things that look legitimate only to find out later that it wasn’t from a reputable source. Some of these sites are really tricky, for example, CNN eNews. If you don’t catch that little e before the news, then you are reading from a site based in Romania. Nothing against Romania but I don’t want my news coming from there. So take the bible’s advice and “be wise”.