Are students and consumers reading truthful information on the Internet? Do they know if what they are reading is being sponsored by someone for money? Thinking is hard work! People are busier than ever and seem to be content with being told what to think. Content marketing alleviates the need to research and spend hours making a decision. It is so much easier to watch a video or read a blog post and be told what to do, how to do it, and what to buy. Content writers and marketers are informing, convincing, and shaping consumer behavior. Content marketing can influence what car you buy or what bank you use. It can influence what hospital you use and college you attend. It can influence the choices you make in life and can even alter your deepest values (Lawrence, 2022).
Content writing and marketing has many good points. Customer reviews can sway a decision. Consumers are relying on customer reviews before making a decision. We trust other people's experiences more than the content writer. Content marketing saves time and gives the consumer lots of information in a short amount of time. We have all relied on the top ten things to do at our vacation destination.
There is also a dark side to content writing and marketing. Consumers can make quick, emotional decisions and spend more on a big ticket item than they should. We have all been victims of the “buy now” button. Quick decisions can be expensive mistakes with serious consequences. It is easy to be fooled by content marketers. Not all information is true or has been tested. We are bombarded with the best of everything. Consumers need to be educated in the difference between sponsored content and what is not sponsored. Sponsored content is all about the money and driving Internet traffic to the company’s website (Lawrence, 2022).
Much of the responsibility to protect consumers lies in the field of education. There is so much misinformation and disinformation at students' fingertips. Disinformation is false information that is deliberately spread to agitate and instigate a behavior. The assault on the Capitol immediately comes to mind. Misinformation is false information that is spread by people that believe it to be true (Lawrence, 2022). Recent examples of misinformation are reports about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. There are posts on social media and websites that they are engaged, secretly married, already engaged and that their relationship is a hoax. What is true? How do we know the difference? Much of the problem of teaching student discernment, is that current teachers are not prepared to teach the intricacies of recognizing the difference between what is true and what is not. Students must be taught to recognize what is sponsored and what is not. Digital skills must be emphasized in our school’s curriculum, and teachers must be trained in the ever-changing landscape of content marketing. The book, Digital Writing: A Guide to Writing for Social Media and the Web, would be a great resource for teachers and students (Lawrence, 2022). Thinking is hard, but we owe it to our students to teach them to be able to recognize the truth.
References
Altmann, G. (2019). [image of hands on keyboard with content words]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/news-contents-keyboard-write-hands-4025602/
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide for writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
Muhammed T, S., & Mathew, S. K. (2022). The disaster of misinformation: A review of research in social media. International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 13(4), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-022-00311-6
Ruiz, C. D. (2023). Disinformation on digital media platforms: A market-shaping approach. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231207644
Nikki, I really enjoyed reading your post! Both social media and the internet have provided a huge platform for anyone to put content out there that people all around the world can view. Within the last couple of years, I feel like the occupation of “content creator” has become more popular especially among the younger generation. People are no longer tuning into news channels for their information; instead, they are turning to platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Tiktok. With it being so easy to put content out there, there is an increasing rise for people to have to vet the information they are scrolling across. In the Ruiz article (2023), I was shocked to see the rapid growth of disinformation research from 2017 to 2022. I think it is the responsibility of the consumer to verify the information you come across especially with content that can lead people astray. Before we jump to conclusions or repost something, we should do our due diligence to verify sources and corroborate the information. In his book, Lawrence (2023) writes “The nature of the web and social media leads many writers to author outrageous or salacious headlines, often called clickbait” (p. 85). In your post, you mentioned the “buy now” button. I’m ashamed to admit that I fell for a misinformation scam a couple of years ago. A family member shared this awesome sale for a Willow Tree nativity set that she found on Facebook. Being so excited about the offer, I purchased one without taking the time to investigate first. When the order arrived, it was a nativity set that looked like Willow Tree; however, it was like 1/10 of the size. Needless to say, we all had a good laugh and learned a very valuable lesson.
ReplyDeleteBrianne, I, too, have ordered a few items that were not as expected or pictured. I was very excited about a cute "teacher" sweatshirt I saw on my Facebook feed. I persuaded my grade level colleagues to order, also. When it finally arrived, we discovered the sweatshirt was made of a slick-like fabric and looked homemade. Since we all ordered one, we wore it anyway. The fabric was hot and everyone complained. One teacher said she would burn it as soon as she got home. Needless to say, we never wore it again.
DeleteIt is amazing how the marketers make us think things are amazing and make us want to buy things. Once I look at an item it shows up even more on my feed. I agree that we should investigate before we purchase an item. But most people don’t take the time for that. Loved you article and I will try in the future to investigate before I buy something.
ReplyDeleteI actually wrote about this same thing! I think this is a huge issue in our
ReplyDeletesociety right now. Muhammed and Mathew (2022) shared that, "rumors, misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information are common challenges confronting media of all types" (p. 271). We, as a society, have to combat against this fake news that is everywhere. Lawrence (2022) writes, "many of the mechanics of social media, such as sharing and media previews, cater to the spread of disinformation" (p. 140). We have to take the time to read what we are sharing to help put the spread to an end!