Fake Social Media and How will you vote in the General Election?

Fake social media

In this blog, we have covered the topic of being aware of fake news and fake social media several times and this week this has never been more relevant. As the events of Monday night in Manchester unfolded, the internet was flooded with false reports of missing children and photos of the scene. This only added confusion to the whole situation and was not helpful to anyone.

This should prove a warning to us all not to trust everything we read and to think twice about sharing something we cannot be sure is true.

For more information read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/05/23/manchester-attack-social-media-trolls-spread-fake-posts-missing/

General Election and how will you vote?

Polling Station at Glinton Village Hall by Paul Bryan reproduced under Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5377045

Whilst the political parties have taken a break over the last few days out of respect for the victims of the Manchester attack, canvassing is slowly starting again ready for the election on the 8th June 2017. If you are 18 you can vote - but only if you have registered to do so. The deadline for doing so is now past but for future reference you can register on the Peterborough City Council website.

So, how will you vote? The Times Educational Supplement (we subscribe to this in Library+) ran an article last week about how important it is for young people to vote. They write that at the Brexit decision, if 16 and 17 year olds had been able to vote, there would have been a different result. Many of those young people are now old enough to vote and can make a difference.

So, how do you decide what to vote? The Complete University Guide has information aimed at students. 

Also you may like to try an online quiz which takes you through the main issues asking you to choose your viewpoint and then at the end it tells you which party you match with most. Take the quiz here.