This week I saw a great example of trust.
A trust in workers.
Our neighbours are having a pool installed, and the only way to get it into position was to crane it in, over their home.
It took most of the day to get everything ready.
You’d want it to, wouldn’t you?
But if you can’t trust the professionals, you’ll never do anything.
I think I held my breath for the whole operation, and it wasn’t even our home.
I’m happy to report it all went well…
Trust.
It’s an interesting concept isn’t it?
It’s something so fundamental to our lives, and yet, how many people or institutions do you really trust?
You’ll often hear the phrase trust is the glue of life.
So when we lose trust, or it’s broken, then things tend to come a bit unstuck.
In this day and age of scammers, it’s wise to question things, do your research, and be cautious.
Misinformation and disinformation are rife, but people often share this sort of content without questioning, or thinking about the consequences.
This article looks at recent data showing about one in five Americans now get their news from social media ‘news influencers’.
In the under-30s, it’s almost one in four.
These figures are compacted by a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) survey that found two-thirds of digital content creators failed to perform even basic fact-checking before sharing information.
To help address this, UNESO has just launched a month-long course to empower content creators to address disinformation and hate speech and provide them with a solid grounding in global human rights standards on both Freedom of Expression and Information.
Fingers crossed.
As a journalist, it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase: trust me, I’m a journalist.
I even bought this T-shirt and fridge magnet from the, ironically now defunct, Newseum in Washington D.C.
My advice is, try to find news and information from reputable sources.
Ones you can trust.
Shop around.
Don’t just rely on one outlet, and definitely don’t automatically accept what you see on social media, Google or Wikipedia.
Trust me…
Ann 🙏