When Does Social Media Get It Wrong?
Remember the 2023 Montgomery riverboat brawl?
Not only did it make national and international headlines, it gave social media content creators new material.
As mentioned in the link article, the incident gave rise to many parody videos.
That’s how some people use social media. Generally speaking, it’s often harmless and sometimes entertaining.
Feeding the Public Bad Information
Others use it to create memes like the ones used on the featured image for this post. The posters hope to garner clicks from a trending topic.
It worked for many posting about the riverboat brawl on Twitter and elsewhere – lots of views, likes, and shares. Many went viral.
And there’s the rub
Both graphics are wrong in multiple ways.
— Nathaniel Alexander did not invent/design the first folding chair.
— The folding chairs shown are not the chair that Mr. Alexander patented.
— To the best of anyone’s knowledge there are no surviving images of Mr. Alexander.
So, Who Are These Men?
Many of you already know the answers, but for the benefit of those who don’t.
This image shows Lewis Latimer, the inventor of the long-lasting carbon filament for incandescent lightbulbs.
Note the warning added to this image.
This image is Jan Ernst Matzeliger, the inventor of the first shoe lasting machine.
(NOTE: The National Inventors Hall of Fame has been added to our K-12 Learning Resources.)
Social Media Confusion
Because the two graphics were circulating simultaneously observant viewers, who weren’t clear on the facts became curious about the conflicting images and researched to discover the truth. Others simply didn’t notice.
It’s always a best practice to get multiple sources, even when your first source is a usually reliable one.
There were many corrections in the comments of these posts (some from this writer), but not everyone reads social media comments.
How Did So Many Get It So Wrong?
There’s no way to know when these images were created but it may have been prior to the melee. Making them easy to access for the moment.
There are many social media creators, who are informative and entertaining. Their focus is on sharing their passion about their respective fields. They make every effort to get it right.
The posters using the errant images aren’t focusing on accuracy. They’re far more interested in clicks and revenue than educating the public (or themselves).
Garbage in – garbage out.
All news outlets of every variety get it wrong sometimes. Social media often gets it wrong.
