I talk about 90-second fact-checks and I think people think I’m a bit unhinged sometimes. What can students possibly do in that short amount of time that would be meaningful?

A lot, actually.

For example, this press release on some recent research was shared with me today:

Now I want to re-share this with people, but I’d like to be a good net citizen as well. Good net citizens:

• Source-check what they share
• Share from the best source possible
• Provide source/claim context to people they share with when necessary

To do that in this case we need to get to the source of the press release, on a site controlled by the American Psychological Association directly, and share that version of this. We also need to check that the American Psychological Association is the credible organization that we think it is. How long will this take?

Literally thirty seconds, if…