“When I write to Tom on WhatsApp, I always hear the Styrian talking, even though I read standard German.” A colleague recently said that to me. And she's right. Tom is the founder of Mimikama. He is a native of Styria and on some days he barks ( explanation here ), even the office dog Pauli is jealous. I understand my colleague's statement and assume that each of us is familiar with this phenomenon. So not now when you send messages back and forth with Tom, but with any person in your personal environment.
And that same voice in your head that you hear when you read a news story can also be a problem with fake news. Because this voice in your head gives you an advance trust in the sender of the messages. This is also one of the reasons why WhatsApp is very problematic when it comes to false reports. Certainly, on the one hand, there are no comparative instances that can point to false reports.
WhatsApp, especially in 1:1 communication, is a closed system. There are also no instances in WhatsApp groups that indicate false reporting in this sense. This allows false reports, conspiracy theories and, in times of war, propaganda to run wild. If everyone involved in the conversation does not recognize a false report, it cannot be corrected and will be forwarded without reflection.
WhatsApp is also the most popular messenger. And that applies to all age groups. The latest version of Youth Internet Monitor has once again shown that 96% of all young people between the ages of 11 and 17 in Austria use WhatsApp. Now that's not surprising at all. Relatively speaking, this quiet usage rate extends across all generations.
Even in the “older” generation, it can be seen that, according to an ARD-ZDF online study, 54% of people aged 50-69 use WhatsApp daily, and even 22% of people over 70 look at Messenger every day [ see here ]. So we see that we can reach a particularly large number of people via Messenger. And that also applies to false reports.
Trust aka “Tom’s Voice”
No, Tom doesn't usually write with the Styrian dialect. He writes standard German. Occasionally he slips out an Euler, but he usually writes in standard German. The phenomenon that my colleague or I hear a Styrian speaking in a dialect in our heads while we read his texts is based on the fact that we also imagine him as the sender. And we also assign these words that we read to him. With all the associated consequences. Also with trust.
Anyone who knowingly or unknowingly spreads false news via messenger has exactly this trust as the wind behind them. We have already been able to determine several times that information received via WhatsApp has a level of trust because the sender of the message is known. On WhatsApp it is usually a person who you have saved as a contact. So you know the person from somewhere. When you read a message from this person, you not only see a face in front of your eyes, but also the voice in your ear that is reading the message. And if it's a High German text, you hear it in Styrian in your head. At least when it comes from Tom.
This is also linked to the trust that this person enjoys. This trust also extends to the content, as you do not primarily assume that the person you trust is trying to lie to you. And now a problem arises that we are not unfamiliar with, especially when it comes to chain letters that have already been forwarded by the sender themselves and may not have been checked at all, but were also accepted on the basis of trust.
Chain letters usually do not come from the person forwarding them, but from someone else. We usually don't know the original person, but we still trust the message because we draw our trust from the person who last forwarded it. This in turn “pleases” the message and the information contained in it, since this mechanism allows the information to be self-legitimized.
It is therefore all the more important at this point to check this information. It's not about a breach of trust with the sender himself, but simply about the information sent.
Our tips therefore:
Our recommendations are not new (what a surprise). “Think first, then click” also applies to WhatsApp. Many of the forwarded messages or images are designed to make use of the so-called “participatory cultures” on WhatsApp. They have been designed in such a way that they are easy to consume and can also be easily distributed.
So here too, always be careful and look at the message carefully. Is that really the “Tom” I hear barking in my head writing there? Or is it just a chain letter from a perhaps even anonymous author? Even with opinion-heavy information from your own friends and acquaintances, it is never a bad idea to do a quick re-check. Especially if you tend to want to forward the content yourself.
For your own protection alone, it is advisable to use search engines and briefly compare who else is writing about a particular piece of information. The classic “debunking” process is really useful. So you first sort out whether a piece of information is plausible or is already dramatically exaggerated. There are also certain indicators that quickly point to conspiracy theories or certain narratives. One of these indicators of conspiracy theories is the claim that “the media” has to keep quiet about it. At this point, conspiracy theories and hoaxes tend to expose themselves.
And if you then notice that a message is no longer quite as trustworthy, you should perhaps stay away from forwarding it. Especially with chain letters, it's not that stupid if various chains are simply interrupted. At this point it wouldn't be wrong to give a short feedback. This doesn't have to be bad, but a small, friendly note to the sender that he or she has spread a tiny false report can sometimes be worth its weight in gold. Because you shouldn't forget: You're not the only one who hears the other person's voice in your head when you read their message. The other person also hears your voice when reading your feedback and trusts you accordingly.
That could also be of interest
The year 2016 has called and wants its actions back: Sign at the train station “Women only when accompanied”
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

