Adult Upgrading English 80 Winter 2024

The internet as a rich source of information has turned into one of the global necessities. It has provided new opportunities for shopping, entertaining, learning, and social interaction for individuals of all age groups. As of January 2021, 4.66 billion active
internet users have been recognized. It means that 59.5 percent of the population is using the Internet globally. Although the
prevalence of internet usage has facilitated tasks in many ways and helped to an equal share of information all around the world,
it is also becoming problematic in case of being misused and may lead to internet addiction.

In 2022, almost all (99%) young Canadians aged 15 to 24 used the Internet and 91% used
social networking sites. of young Canadians reported seeing online hate content
in the previous 12 months. This is well above the national average (49%).

From fake news to conspiracy theories, from inflammatory memes to misleading headlines, misinformation has swiftly become the defining problem of our era. The crisis threatens the integrity of our democracies, our ability to cultivate trusting relationships, even our physical and psychological well-being--yet most attempts to combat it have proven insufficient. In Foolproof, one of the world's leading experts on misinformation lays out a crucial new paradigm for understanding and defending ourselves against the worldwide infodemic. With remarkable clarity, Sander van der Linden explains why our brains are so vulnerable to misinformation, how it spreads across social networks, and what we can do to protect ourselves and others. Like a virus, misinformation infects our minds, exploiting shortcuts in how we see and process information to alter our beliefs, modify our memories, and replicate at astonishing rates. Once the virus takes hold, it's very hard to cure. Strategies like fact-checking and debunking can leave a falsehood still festering or, at worst, even strengthen its hold. But we aren't helpless. As van der Linden shows based on award-winning original research, we can cultivate immunity through the innovative science of "prebunking": inoculating people against false information by preemptively exposing them to a weakened dose, thus empowering them to identify and fend off its manipulative tactics. Deconstructing the characteristic techniques of conspiracies and misinformation, van der Linden gives readers practical tools to defend themselves and others against nefarious persuasion--whether at scale or around their own dinner table.

The social dynamics of "alternative facts": why what you believe depends on who you know