There’s a new trend that I can’t help but be confused by. Actually, it’s not even all that new anymore seeing as it’s been around for a few months. The phrase “fake news” just keeps popping up everywhere I look. Seriously, what the heck does this even mean?

Every time I scroll through my Facebook feed, or read a thread on twitter about anything even slightly political, there’s inevitably someone discrediting the whole thing by calling it “fake news”. Is there something I’m missing? Surely not everything can be chalked up to being fake news…but that doesn’t stop people.

For example, the other day I came across an article that involved religion. As far as I could see, it was presenting facts about a situation in a very unbiased manor. Scroll to the comments and… what the hell is going on???? “FAKE NEWS!” “IT’S ALL PROPGANDA!!! DON’T FALL FOR IT!” “DISGUSTING COMMUNISTS!” Are these people serious? (spoiler alert: yes)

The scariest part is this is mostly from adults. Some of the comments were longer and more thought out, but basically had the same point. These types of comments appear on all types of news. Stories about celebrities, local news, anything even slightly political—it’s all “fake” now…apparently.

My question is, what does this mean? Are these people suggesting it’s factually inaccurate? If so, I truly wonder how they arrive at such conclusions. Perhaps they say it’s fake because it’s trivial in their eyes? Fair enough. But, who’s making you read news that’s insignificant to you? Oh yeah—nobody!!! So just ignore it and don’t taint the internet with your ignorant jargon. Perhaps fake news is just news that threatens their beliefs; or they interpret it as doing so even if it’s just an informative news piece. Honestly, they probably don’t even know what they’re doing. Hopefully it’s all a huge prank, because WOW is it disturbing.

My point is, you can’t cherry pick what you want to consider fake news. No news is fake news (assuming it’s factual, of course). You can’t just undermine something’s value because you don’t like it. Let’s be better than that, America! Technology should be pushing us forward as a whole, not tearing us in two.