Social media allows rumors to spread faster

Before Facebook and Twitter, social groups were small and communication was personal. Now it takes only seconds for the most intimate details of people's lives to be spread on social media.

Tamara Zellars Buck, assistant professor in the department of mass media at Southeast Missouri State University, said she may sit at a table with five or six friends discussing what she's heard about a topic. But online, she could send out the same information to 250 people.

"We're sharing much more intimate information with a non-intimate audience," said Buck, who teaches journalism and media law. "What results is they share that information with their 250 friends."

Rumors spread the same way, and they seem more powerful because they're in writing, Buck said.

That was apparent earlier this week, when several Oran High School students talked on Twitter about a violent threat against the school. The threat, school officials and police said, was unfounded.

Online, Buck said, no one is taking responsibility for checking what they're posting before it's on the web. News outlets are fighting to be first and may sometimes sacrifice validity for efficiency.

"We're saying it seems legitimate, and we pass it on. We don't realize we may be causing harm," she said.

What's really bad, she said, is when someone tries to contradict what's online and gets drowned out.

Additionally, people may be connected to multiple social media outlets at the same time, so people who post something to Twitter may have it show up on Facebook and Instagram at the same time. It also impacts how quickly rumors spread, as does the size of someone's "social circle," which is larger than "our physical social circle," she said.

People who post things online are also likely to say things to people they would not say face-to-face.

"It's just a lot easier to repeat something because you can try and hide behind the computer, or you may not realize you are hiding," Buck said.