Taking a peek on Tumblr, one of my most frequently-visited time-wasting social media sites, although I am usually greeted with quirky jokes and adorable pictures of doggies crawling out of boots, I also observe a medley of oblivious and negligent people.

Unfortunately, Tumblr is quickly losing its number one spot on my browser’s most-visited website thumbnails. There’s a wonderfully warm and friendly community brought together… but on the other side of that rainbow, I see that there’s also the ridiculously and seemingly-uneducated group of people spurting out very much untrue or extremely biased facts left and right.

I normally don’t mind people’s opinions, but sometimes it’s delivered like it’s a fact rather than an opinion, then I think they’re intentionally trying to deceive someone else. And worse, when these opinion givers cyber abuse anyone who doesn’t agree with their opinions…

Thankfully, I now follow few blogs with these often negative people, but I’ve seen it far too much before. And just because you don’t necessarily see these people doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They just happen to be mingling around, hidden from sight.

But whoever believes them is at fault too – don’t just take words immediately as fact. I’ve learned not to take things face value from my experience. But maybe there’s some sort of assumption that people on the internet are always earnest. There dwells at least one ounce of skepticism in the back of my mind. I’d understand if the internet didn’t exist or if someone didn’t have anywhere to turn towards to check some particularly “red-flag” facts, but seriously, Google it (or Bing it or whatever search website it). It takes practically no time at all.

When I first saw this very confusing comment on a gif of Spirited Away, one of my not-so-childhood animated favorites, I was taken aback. It basically said the director aimed for the movie to be a metaphor and criticism for prostitution in Japan. But I actually started to believe it because what the person said made sense. But seriously, I was shocked – until I saw a reply underneath saying that it wasn’t true – how could some person draw such a baseless conclusion on such a beloved director? I realized I was slipping into the commenter’s trap – I still don’t know who was right in the end because I haven’t found any conclusive evidence from anywhere, but it’s made me be more conscious of comments people make on anything.