Take 20 Seconds for Good Information Hygiene

 

[Image from The News Literacy Project.]

In the face of rampant misinformation on social media, the interdisciplinary team of PhDs and Clinicians at Dear Pandemic recommend the following steps for good Information Hygiene:

• Assess the source
• Go beyond the headlines
• Identify the author
• Check the date
• Examine supporting evidence
• Check your biases [Separate fact from emotion]
• Turn to Fact Checkers

These skills will help you root out good info from bad on the interwebs.

Advice for good information hygiene:

Take 20 seconds guidance serves as an apt metaphor for practicing good information hygiene. Peter Adams, the News Literacy Project’s senior vice president of education, made the connection during a March 14 segment of NPR’s All Things Considered.  Here is how Peter described it: “The equivalent of taking 20 seconds and washing your hands is very much the same in the information space. If everyone can take 20 seconds, investigate the source, do a quick Google search, stay skeptical, we can eliminate a great deal of the confusion and misinformation out there.”

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