In Daniel Kahnamen’s book, “Thinking Fast and Slow”, he writes that “A reliable way of making people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”
I am so used to NOT believing things on Twitter that when the photo of purple-illuminated Niagara Falls hit my laptop this morning, I immediately rolled my eyes and groaned. “When will people stop believing old, recycled photos online?”
Turns out that I was the one who was fooled this time. Niagara Falls WAS illuminated purple last night. In the color of royalty. For Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.
That didn’t keep the Twitterverse from assuming that the Falls were decked out in honor of Prince, since he passed away yesterday.
The photo was legit. The reason? Not so much. But that’s irrelevant. Perhaps this photo taught me that it is possible to be too cynical when it comes to news on social media.