“What The Fact” is about the good and bad places of information and how to stay safe from fake news. The first section of the book tells us about false information on the internet, how to understand or know if it is fake or not, and how to stop yourself from giving it what it wants. The most interesting section of the book is the second section. It talks about the bias people have when writing important information down. This section also talks about beliefs and believing strongly in something doesn’t mean that it would be right which makes it my favorite section because it gives us examples and stresses our brains out. The third section was a bit repetitive. It talked a bit too much about the press and the news with the government’s inner workings which I could not completely understand. The third section also talks about the history of American news and how news is created. The fourth section talks about social media and how its claims and facts have a certain effect on your brain and the connection between your brain’s response to social media. The fifth and last section talks about different styles of convincing and how to change people’s minds to do the thing you want them to do.
I think the book is a very important one. I feel like reading this book can help you understand if the information is false or not so you will not be influenced by false and harmful information. It tells us about some of the places on the internet that might have fake news and also trains us so we don’t fall prey anymore. It explains to us biases and that all humans have them along with all websites and news articles that are claiming they do not. The book makes you more aware of your mind and the way you think about everything and also every single little thing that you might see. It also talks about social media and what it does to you. The examples given in the book help me understand it. This book would have been very confusing without the examples, everything will just seem like a bunch of random words. I would give this book a 4 only because the politics were boring and examples were much needed to explain the story better.
One of the most memorable parts was when they told us an example that had to do with going on a diet of only bananas. They were talking about social media where someone goes on a diet eating bananas for breakfast lunch and dinner and one time she ate 51 bananas a day. Then it became a trend and lots of people started eating bananas for breakfast lunch and dinner. At that point, I would say people went bananas with what they read on the internet.
Review by Achin T., Twin Hickory Area Library
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