Inbound Giant Asteroid
Scientists have discovered a massive asteroid that is on course to hit the Earth in less than 60 days. NASA along with SpaceX, Blue Origins, and Orbital Sciences Corporation are scrambling to find a way to divert the object.
The asteroid named 2023 AP7 measures approximately 2.3 km across and was detected by researchers using the Dark Energy Camera in Chile to look for objects within the orbits of Earth and Venus. In addition to 2023 AP7, the team also detected two other near-Earth asteroids, called 2023 LJ4 and 2023 PH27, having orbital paths completely interior to Earth’s orbit and could also enter its path.
Described as a potential “planet killer” object, if 2023 AP7 strikes a populated area it could wipe out entire cities and devastate an entire continent. Along with either 2023 LJ4 and 2023 PH27, the impact could easily be cataclysmic on a global scale.
While evidence indicates… nah, I’m totally messing with you. There’s no inbound planet-killing asteroid, at least not about to strike anytime soon.
But there is a study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute finding that 59 percent of links shared on social media have never been clicked, meaning that most people who share news and comment on social media are not reading it first.
For the study, Arnaud Legout and co-authors collected two data sets: The first on all tweets containing Bit.ly-shortened links to five major news sources during a one-month period; the second, on all of the clicks attached to that set of shortened links, as logged by Bit.ly, during the same period. After cleaning and collating that data, the researchers basically found themselves with a map of how news goes viral on Twitter.
The map showed “viral” news is widely shared but not necessarily read.
According to the Washington Post, one thing study authors say is concerning about this is that it shapes the way we see the world. Legout said in a statement:
“People are more willing to share an article than read it. This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or a summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper.”
This probably won’t shock most people. We see it often in comments sections – people making loud proclamations about stories they clearly haven’t read. Entire discussions are chaired by those who didn’t actually RTFA (Read The F-ing Article). It’s maddening.
What can you do about it?
RTFA, of course, and don’t share or comment on things you haven’t read. Being informed is being responsible.
So, have you read the article this far, or are you still busy commenting and sharing about that “inbound asteroid”?