Do You Actually BELIEVE That???

Sometimes, I just end up sitting at my desk shaking my head at some of the things I come across on social media.

It seems like people are willing to believe virtually anything without questioning what's in front of them and without doing any kind of research to verify whether or not what they're looking at is a pure fabrication, a partial fabrication or the actual truth.

In most cases, it seems like what people choose to put their faith in centers around an opportunity to become fired up and outraged over something.

I guess the thing I find most bizarre about it is the fact that we have repeatedly been warned "not to believe everything on the Internet," but at the same time people seem more prone to believe tall tales online than anywhere else.

Aside from confirmation bias, I know there's a psychological term for preferring to believe something that supports your worldview, as opposed to accepting the truth that is different from that worldview.

I don't know what has happened to healthy skepticism, and to seeing some outrageous claim and thinking to yourself ”really? That can't possibly be true, let me check on that.” People just take things at face value and in no time it gains a life of its own as it is circulated via memes and re-shares all over the place.

Lately, I have been spending a little more time than usual on Facebook because I am promoting my artwork, and publicizing an event where I'm going to be participating as a vendor. I don't know what the algorithm thinks I'm doing, and I don't know what the people who are allegedly my ”Facebook friends” are looking at but I'm seeing some truly bizarre things.

These are things that cannot possibly be true except in a science fiction novel or in some kind of parallel universe! I'm not going to share them here simply because I don't want to feed the ”machine” that is sending them out there in the first place.

Bottom line seems to be that a lot of people would rather believe what they want reality to be as it exists inside their heads, as opposed to actual tangible reality in front of them. And while it is a new — or perhaps not so new — spiritual truism that you create your own reality, there is surely a limitation on that, as well as the fact that for every push in one direction there is likely to be a pushback from a different direction which means we're likely to land somewhere in the middle.

The thing that's a little bit alarming about it is that so many people don't seem to care about factual reality. They are completely and totally down inside how they feel about a thing, independently of whether that thing actually exists. Which is quite different from simply wishing for or visualizing a thing.

It worries me a bit, for this world we live in…

It is slightly odd to me that "thinking for yourself" has become such a rarity... mostly (it seems) because people value being part of the group more highly than being authentic.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Do you think people spend less time making sure what they "hear" is actually true? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.09.04 23:55 PDT
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