A perfect example of the need for information literacy in social media

I'm a big fan of The Onion, but I'm also in on the joke that all of their stories are made up ... However, that doesn't stop certain individuals from sharing those stories via Facebook and treating them as legitimate news items:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386088,00.asp

The Onion is a satire publication and website. It makes fun of real news in a creative and often extreme fashion, which makes it all the more laughable when someone posts a link to an Onion story alongside some scathing comment about the state of society/politics/puppies.


We wish we could make that last part up, but we're not. In fact, The Onion seems to confuse so many online users that a blog has been set up to record instances where fake news meets real-life shock. It's called "Literally Unbelievable," and it's—literally—just that. Users submit the horrific responses their friends have made to fake news articles for publication on the site. There are no comments and no "likes" on Literally Unbelievable: Just responses the news (or the not-news).

Boy, these people are in serious need of some information literacy instruction :)