You just have to trust me

I've always had a bit of a problem with trusting people. I tend to believe what they tell me no matter how ridiculous it may sound.

That's probably why my roommate has decorated our wall with post-it notes containing quotes from conversations that make me look like a gullible idiot. But in my defense, why would anyone lie about the sexual orientation of our R.A.? Seriously, why?

When it comes to social media, I have the same problem -- I generally hold my friends' postings to be truthful.  Sometimes they are. For instance, my friend Andrew Dunn tweeted that classes before 10 a.m. were canceled the day it snowed. I trusted him and immediately retweeted it to my followers.We all got to sleep an extra two hours.

But my naivete has had the opposite result as well.  Last summer, a friend posted on Facebook, "Mr. Baker, Mr. Lynn, Mrs. Crabtree and Mrs. Patterson all got FIRED."

I was horrified. These were some of my favorite teachers! I knew the school was facing budget cuts, so it seemed logical that they might cut teaching positions.  I assumed I was getting information from a reliable source.

However, my friend was completely wrong. These teachers all still have their jobs; they were only a risk of being laid-off since they didn't have tenure.

Although I may be too trusting when it comes to social media, I still trust my sense of judgment when it comes to the news.  When Fall Out Boy was a trending topic on Twitter, I read the tweets, but then did a Google search for the band to verify that they had broken up.

But you can't always verify gossip. Sure, I probably could have found the list of lay-offs for Gaston County Schools, but at the time it didn't occur to me.

Today I probably would at least attempt to verify something I knew was public record, but relationship statuses and gossip tweets I would take with a grain of salt. I think most people believe that their friends are sharing valid information when it comes to trivial gossip, but with the speed of sending information via social media, I think we could all slow down and verify our sources.