Ebola: The Malware Virus
With Social Media, information spreads instantaneously. People see news, pictures, videos, and posts all the time and they also possess the power to manipulate it. As time and technology advance, there’s one thing this information and the spread of disease have in common: fast transportation. So as of this moment, as the world deals with the global awareness and scare of Ebola, just how does Social Media have an impact on the deception of this virus?

Looking back at all that’s happened since Ebola resurfaced as an outbreak in this world, everyone around the world seems to be in such a panic. The looks on these people’s faces, the comments and questions that are brought up are outrageous and it’s as if everyone thinks black whenever the word Ebola is brought up. Maybe seeing black is literal, however, as people everywhere look at Africans as well as African-Americans and say ignorant things like “You brought Ebola” or “You have Ebola”. People can argue all day long with the facts of where exactly it came from but that shouldn’t give the right to make those type of remarks. But what is it this time around in the year 2014, which makes it seem so much bigger and scarier than compared to in the late 1970’s? It’s the media coverage and the deception that is fed to us about the virus. Back in the 1970’s it wasn’t broadcasted the way it is today, where something related to Ebola is the breaking news on every major news and political channel; but at least that’s where it should be in professional terms. Going a step forward where the real problem is, there wasn’t Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Vine and various other social networks to go on to rant about, or to make fun for everyone to see. I believe the problem is that Social Media loosens everything for us. Things that should be taken seriously can be reduced to jokes by a silly comment and a picture and that’s a lot of what I see.
When we get news broadcasted, first it has to come from a source. Once the information makes it from the source to the news, it makes it to our eyes and ears. As viewers and also people dependent on it, we trust that the things we see and hear are accurate, but as viewers that already makes us secondary consumers. So who’s to say every little bit of information is confirmed true? There could be one small detail that is altered or left out and that’s not good. Following the broadcast to viewers, the information goes