We just collectively need to improve vetting sources. It’s something we can do individually, or collectively through moderation.
I mainly just share pics here, but I do try to give a decent chunk of educational content as well. I take what I share seriously, because I want it treated seriously at times. I’m honest I’m not an expert, just a hobbyist. I always include sources or share if it’s something from my personal limited experience. I try to verify things from at least 2 sources before sharing things if it’s a new source. I always try to be clear if I’m hypothesizing about something and I’m not certain of it.
It’s probably taking my content more seriously than necessary, but I take pride in what I post and I want to be seen as a trusted person in the community.
I think the last few years have made it clear to anyone capable of understanding that we can no longer just take people at their word without some process of establishing trust. Like anything else, we can wait for someone else to fix it, or we can up our own games, on both providing and receiving information.
Work does suck the life out of me, but I’d hope I can still pass a Turing test! 😜
There’s always going to be people that value facts and knowledge and they will always find each other for their own sanity.
With a focus on animal stuff, there is a lot of AI that I come across to try to win cuteness karma. I do see some convincing looking things that make me do a double take, because animals can do some weird things after all, but some stuff is never going to be physically possible. Some color combos just don’t exist. It may take a more trained eye to spot things, but there’s still going to be people calling stuff out and there will be forums where things will get pulled down if they’re not real.
In that regard, I worry about some real things being lost, at least to view to some of the general public, where real things that can’t be verified get downvoted/taken down/etc. But those with real interest will still work to conclusively verify or disprove things of questionable value.
People just want truth to get out. Whether you’re interested in education or conspiracy, from whichever direction most of us approach things, we just want to know the truth to the best of our abilities. That does bring inherent troubles and creates avenues to poison the well, but as hard as the bad actors will work, the good actors will be working to clean it just as hard.
ETA:
I also encourage people to question me. I’m happy to be able to confirm things, because I want you to also learn what I have learned, because I found it cool enough to study and share with you already. Questioning what I present to you also leads me to learn about more things, exploring subject matter I wouldn’t have thought to pursue on my own, or to finally learn about something I’ve been meaning to get to. Someone questioning my knowledge is both an opportunity for me to teach and to learn. And if I was wrong, hopefully afterwards I will know what is correct, and that has strengthened me as a whole if I accept I was wrong and have learned from the experience and not acted immaturely about it.