Correcting people who post things that are untrue

[MorningGlory]

I've got a couple of friends who will repost any random thing on Facebook that makes false claims.  The most recent one is "the wax in instant noodles causes cancer!!" image.  Do any of you take time to correct obviously untrue medical/scientific claims?  Or do you just ignore it? 

[mechtilde]

I ignore it- not least because my life is too short to spend arguing with people who post pseudo-medical rubbish. They will have their dodgy articles already lined up, and I even if I posted peer-reviewed articles by the top specialists in the field they still wouldn't believe me. So I don't waste my time.

[magicdomino]

If it is my sister, I look up the appropriate Snopes citation, and email to Reply All.  Anyone else, I ignore.  Then again, my sister is the only person I know who forwards every single internet hoax ever written.  Sometimes twice.   

[JenJay]

I comment back something like "That sounded scary so I googled it. Turns out it's not true. Yay!" and then post the snopes link.

One time a relative, who reposts every conspiracy theory he comes across, reposted something not only untrue, but quoted in such a way as to be deliberately misleading and upsetting. Silly me, I thought he'd appreciate knowing the truth so I linked him to the full text of the quote so he could see how it had been taken out of context. His response was "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet!" I admit I wasn't quick in deploying my eHell filter and I responded back to him "So the Internet is okay for reposting false, racist garbage but it's not okay for debunking it?" He never replied so I just unsubscribed from his status updates and put him on hide.

[Yvaine]

I comment back something like "That sounded scary so I googled it. Turns out it's not true. Yay!" and then post the snopes link.

I do that too. I'll post the snopes link but with a little self-deprecating pretense of having been suckered by the story too, so they don't think I'm calling them stupid. The results have been mixed. Some people will reply positively, some will quietly delete the post, and a few have just dug in deeper, but I feel like I've done my duty at that point.

[Hillia]

A lot of folks in DH's family forward everything.  I only reply if the advice given is potentially dangerous ('if you're having a heart attack,  chew aspirin and drive yourself to the hospital!!!!!').  Otherwise I roll my eyes interrnally and read snopes.

[greencat]

After getting chewed out by my mother for e-mailing my dad back a correction of an egregiously stupid forward, I set up a filter in my e-mail to quietly remove any forwarded emails from him from my inbox, so I never see them at all.

The one person on my FB friends list who does this kind of thing on a regular basis has had her feed hidden, and I believe I may have hidden my posts from her as well.  I would defriend her, and have done it in the past, except that she notices and adds me back, and she's an old friend from middle/high school and I don't really want to block her, because it's not that I don't like her so much as we don't have anything in common but the past.  It's easier to have her as a ghost friend.

[O'Dell]

I ignore it. In my mind it's like fighting the tidal wave of ignorance with a Dixie cup. Why stress myself?

[artk2002]

For the most part, I ignore it. If it's someone I know well, I might PM a correction to them. Most people won't take correction well -- they're too wedded to whatever misconception it is. There's usually an emotional component when they post stuff like this. It makes them feel important and "in the know" to be sharing this information that "they" don't want you to know. By correcting them, you're attacking part of their self-identity.

I comment on some skeptical blogs and there are frequently people there defending their particular falsehood. I have to hand it to the people who debunk each and every one. I don't have that kind of patience.

[wheeitsme]

I read the OP and IMMEDIATELY thought of this!  LOL

[Penguin_ar]

I usually just post the snopes link without comment.

[lynxcan]

I have an aunt who forwards emails and jokes regularly and I will check them out using Snopes if they sound off to me.  I'll  then forward the link and a comment back to her.  The last email I got said, "Someone will let us know pretty darned quickly if this is incorrect." 

I turned the other cheek and have not responded.     I love her dearly but wonder, if you suspect, then why not look it up before you forward it???

Lesson learned.  I think I may have been coming across as a know-it-all.   

[sweetonsno]

I'll generally post the Snopes article too. Sometimes, I'll send it in a PM. Other times, I'll comment directly.

I usually don't reply directly unless the misinformation calls for some sort of action or includes emotional manipulation. For example, there have been some horribly graphic photos circulating with a promise that "if this gets X number of Shares, X company will do the surgery for free!" I'm not okay with a friend being emotionally manipulated like that, and I don't want their friends to fall for it and continue the cycle, either.

[acicularis]

I'll generally post the Snopes article too. Sometimes, I'll send it in a PM. Other times, I'll comment directly.

I usually don't reply directly unless the misinformation calls for some sort of action or includes emotional manipulation. For example, there have been some horribly graphic photos circulating with a promise that "if this gets X number of Shares, X company will do the surgery for free!" I'm not okay with a friend being emotionally manipulated like that, and I don't want their friends to fall for it and continue the cycle, either.

I've seen those too, and what I have done is not respond directly, but post a new status of my own to address it. I might say "I've seen this floating around lately, but according to this article, it's not true," and link to the article. I figure this gets the information out there and also allows the person who shared it with me to save face since I'm not calling them out directly.

[Twik]

I have an aunt who forwards emails and jokes regularly and I will check them out using Snopes if they sound off to me.  I'll  then forward the link and a comment back to her.  The last email I got said, "Someone will let us know pretty darned quickly if this is incorrect." 

I turned the other cheek and have not responded.     I love her dearly but wonder, if you suspect, then why not look it up before you forward it???

Lesson learned.  I think I may have been coming across as a know-it-all.   

Or, she may have gladly accepted you as her official fact-checker. If you suddenly quit, she will just give even more credence to what she sent, because "lynxcan would have said something if it wasn't true."