Teachers and students can agree that fake websites have become an issue as of recently, especially when students are trying to find credible websites for classes or trying to get reliable news. Fake news and false information have always been a problem on the internet, but recently the situations have been getting out of hand.

The click bait and lies that are being shown to people are used to grab the reader’s attention, and most, if not all of the time it’s false information. It’s a problem for students especially because not all of them check and see if it’s a credible source.

There are news sites that are all propaganda and are only used to appeal to a certain group of people. There are some sites that are simply lies and no one knows quite why people would put false or over exaggerated information in the websites. Multiple students have run into these sites, and though some may not catch the unreliability of them, most notice what an inconvenience they can be.

Senior, Ashlynn Ealey, stated “Well I see it as false advertisement. The people writing these false ads are lying to the public.” It’s one thing to have these false reports and ads when you’re trying to learn more about something, but in some cases, like class work, these untrue statements could lead someone to get a bad grade or be in serious trouble.”

With all of the lies and false advertisements out there, it would be a good idea to make sure all of the sites that are being used are reliable and trustworthy.

These misleading websites aren’t something only students worry about. With social media becoming a bigger thing, more and more of these sites are being found and shared so more people can see them. Teachers encourage students to always double check the websites they look at but with all so many things being shared, everyone might encounter false information at one point or another.

Teacher, Erin Wagner, says that, “These fake news sites are very frustrating. Due to the growth of social media people have more access to these unreliable sources and I now I always try to analyze the source of an article before I believe that it’s the facts”.

According to Journalism teacher Ms. Galloy, she stresses the importance of evaluating news sites for reliability. “Teaching students to recognize ethical practices in media is of great importance; not everything can be trusted or respected as click bait news spreads like wild fire.”

Our interconnectedness grows by the day and is intertwined with the internet, thus these false websites grow as well. This is an issue that continues to affect countless of our peers – as unfortunate that is – and there is no immediate solution to this problem. However, like teachers advise, make a habit of using .edu and .org web sites in order to find your information.

While double-checking your sources is common practice, getting used to fact checking will save you from mistakes later on.