Satiriker Erlend B. Valen-Sendstad

The Internet is a beautiful, democratic and leveled playing-field – but it is also a toxic, divisive and speculative propaganda machine. And quite often it’s hard to know which part of the Internet you’ve wound up in.

No matter what piece of information you’ve stumbled across – a Reddit-post, a magazine article, or a Facebook message – you’re constantly challenged to identify whether the text is written with a serious intent or a comedic one.

Here is a helpful – and completely free! – guide to help you spot satire on the web:

Do you agree with the premise of the article? If you do, then you can safely conclude that it must be written by an authority on the subject. Feel free to calmly continue on with your life without any further investigation. What?! Are you supposed to fact-check everything you read? In the information age, fact-checking is only useful to undermine articles you disagree with. That’s a fact. And don’t fact-check that either. You know the rules.

Do you strongly agree with the premise of the article? If you feel this strongly about it, you’ve probably written the article yourself. If on the off chance you are not the author (which is a really rare occurrence, and I’m not sure I believe you), you’ve found the epicenter of your digital safe space. Make sure to bookmark it as a “My favorite echo chamber” and check back regularly to re-align your mental health while web-surfing. Do you have a lingering sense that the article is making a mockery of your earnest opinions? Don’t worry. How could anyone possibly want to joke about something this serious?

Do you disagree with the premise of the article? I guess there is some exposure therapy in challenging yourself to read this, but let’s be honest: This is more of a surface-level activity where you claim to be interested in the opposing view, while silently collecting arguments against them. As you should! Because they are all dumb-asses who need to be corrected instantly (preferably through a really sarcastic tweet), and this is what the Internet anno 2018 is built for.

Do you strongly disagree with the premise of the article? Ah, this has got to be satire. If you come across something so blatantly ridiculous, shocking, or outrageous that it’s hard to comprehend – simply choose not to. There is no way anybody could have written this in sincerity – and even if they did, is this the kind of world you want to live in? Feel free to laugh and enjoy the obvious irony, knowing for sure that no-one in their right mind could take this seriously. It’s just not possible. It could never happen. In the end, common sense will prevail. Case closed. Nothing to see here. Quickly shut down your browser and get on with your day before you start to wonder if all convictions are equally laughable to the opposition, in reality, making any article satirical depending on its audience.