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Social media is a platform where information is shared on a large scale by the masses. Information that varies in nature, any information uploaded on any online platform could be Personal, Professional, Informative, Entertaining, etc.

Facebook is the biggest social media platform where millions of people upload all kinds of information. However, the motive of such platforms is to promote goodness, awareness, etc. there are always some people and entities that push misleading, abusive, or hateful information on it which in return promotes bad behavior to the users.

So in an attempt to curb such issues and problems, Facebook has come up with a subtle method to improve how its users use their platform.

Last year in June, Twitter tested prompts that urged its users to open and read a link before retweeting it, which stood out to be successful and resulted in people opening the content and reading it. In some cases, people chose not to retweet some stories at all.

Just like Twitter, Facebook has just started testing its new interface feature, which notifies people through a prompt to read or at least open the link before sharing it on their feed. Facebook said that it is trying to promote and encourage positive and informed sharing. The Facebook prompt says, “You’re about to share this article without opening it,” and later, “Sharing articles without reading them may mean missing key facts.” The prompt then gives the user two options to either open the article or repost it as usual.

“This test in its initial phase will be rolled out to 6 percent of Android users worldwide,”– A Facebook spokesperson revealed.

Although a user will still be able to click through to share a story, the primary motive behind this testing is to create obstruction or friction to the process of sharing so that the user might rethink and give it a second thought before sharing the content which could contain harmful or inflammatory information. This prompt has come up as the right way to tackle such misleading information that has dominated the platform for quite some time.

Facebook, similar to this, released a pop-up message last year in June that warned people before sharing an article that is older than 90-days to stop people from sharing out-

of-the-context misleading information. Again after a few months, Facebook rolled out another pop-up message which informed people and mentioned the date and source of the Covid-19 related topic they are sharing.

Any piece of information that is misleading or false might impact the psychology or behavior of a person towards that particle topic; topics like Covid-19, Elections, Rumor spreading, etc., and a drive to promote such false information or propaganda can change the course of action of many, leading to undesired results. Any such information on a social media platform like Facebook doesn’t only affect an individual but also those who are around that person, and the whole audience that is consuming such information as well which, usually is in very high numbers. That’s why social media platforms keep exploring and testing such prompts to discourage their users from sharing such false information.

Social media may not be the right place to get or learn your facts and news. Social media, more than often, has turned out to be deceiving and not correct. So it would help if you also trust your sensibility and conscience before believing any information you may come across on Facebook, Twitter, or the Internet as a whole.

Such practices are not implemented to deliver immediate results. Instead, these are done to get gradual but effective results in the long run. And such methods prove to be fruitful since it helps clean out the platform of any negative influence. When users become aware that their bad behavior is being observed, whether through alerts or pop-up messages, they tend to become more careful while using social platforms resulting in automated moderation.

Some also argue that social media platforms dominated by harmful or misleading content should scrap their platform altogether and start themselves again clean from scratch.

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I have been spending the afternoon glancing at celebrity gossip sites, and reading the many comments those kinds of sites bring. And I have to ask, have we forgotten that celebrities are human too?

As members of the human race, we are allowed to make mistakes. Even entitled to make mistakes. This is what helps us grow. Wrong choices bring experience to our lives, and eventually we learn from these mistakes.

So why is it that celebrities are not allowed the same graces? Why do we expect them to be perfect. Sure they have public relations people, and hair and makeup teams, stylists, personal trainers, and therapists on speed dial. But they are not robots. They have problems just like the rest of us. So when they do screw up (and we all do) why is it to be such a big deal?

Here is an example of some of the headlines I have read today – with a side dish of my opinion.

From TMZ.COM – Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez reuniting on an ATV. The comments on this post are judgemental and for the most part, negative and harmful. I understand making fun of celebrities. Really I get it. They lead glamorous lives, have a lot of money, get to do fun projects, and go to the best parties. Why shouldn’t we poke fun just a little bit? Its fun to be snarky. But how many of us have had multiple breakups with the same person? Someone that all of our friends (and family) couldn’t stand. Yet we still wanted to be with them anyway. Here is me raising my hand. I am so guilty of this. But here’s the thing, my relationship with that person was not caught on camera, it was not talked about and dissected by millions of people every day. Clearly there is something good in that relationship that we don’t see, otherwise, why on earth are they still trying to make this work. We will never know the full story. So if they are in fact making a mistake by being together, let them figure it out on their own.

From People.com Joan Rivers is Resting Comfortably at Hospital – (warning this example is not about a mistake that Joan made -but solely about our own reactions). Joan Rivers, beloved queen of snark is fighting for her life, after complications arose from a routine throat surgery. The comments on this article are horrifying. Why are we wishing this woman ill? Is it because we think she is invincible? I can assure you she is not. The woman may have a forked tongue (please know that I mean this with the upmost respect), but she is fighting for her life. We should not be putting out nasty thoughts towards her right now. She is someone’s grandmother. Maybe we should be remembering this. It’s one thing to heckle her when she is on stage performing, but its something else entirely when we are insulting her, as she lays unconscious in a hospital bed. **Update – Joan Rivers is on life support.

My last example is anything Kardashian/West (pick your tabloid-they are everywhere). From what I have read, this is the most hated family on the planet. Besides body image (which I personally think is a great conversation being fronted by Mrs Kardashian-West), I have not heard anything remotely positive stated about them. If I read such personal attacks about myself, I would move into a cave (aka underground lair) and never see daylight again. I don’t follow their day to day activities, I understand there is a reality show – or many shows that revolve around Kim Kardashian, but I don’t know what she has done to deserve all this hatred. Is it merely because she has made a living being a socialite+?  Is being media savvy her mistake? Why are we judging this family so harshly?

Why are we holding these people to a higher standard than ourselves.  Do we all live in glass houses? Why are we throwing stones at them? I know that this blog is about celebrities, but I choose not to make fun of bad choices, I will question their behaviour, of course – but I will always try to understand why they chose to make those decisions. And sometimes I will get angry at those decisions, because I too am human.

You might be wondering where I'm going with this, but I'll get to the meat of this piece in a moment. Take a look at my title "Celebrities, You Know They Are People Too." There are loads and loads of people who love to hear and read the latest gossip about their favorite celebrity. It's been said that people in the public eye should know that their private life is fair game to the public. Now having been in the public eye as a reporter here and there in various markets across the country, I know first hand for this is true. Which is why I would seldom, if ever, post pictures of my family. I did this for many reasons, but mostly because I wanted to keep them safe. I didn't want people to know who I spent my private time with or whom I hold near and dear to my heart.

Just get to the point already Kelsey, I hear you all saying. Recently, Peoplemagazine joined in the pledge with celebrity blogging site JustJared.com to not run a story or publish photos involving celebrity children that were not authorized first. In my opinion this is a marvelous idea and this is coming from the person who, like I said before, is extremely curious and thrills on learning more. With that said, there should be boundaries and I think the children of celebrities are a boundary. This subject just didn't come out of thin air, we have heard countless times from celebrities who say the paparazzi constantly hound them for photographs and at times they feel like their life and that of their children could be in danger. To make that point actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner took their concerns all the way to the California State Legislature. Then there are recent parents like Kristen Bell who decided to reach out to people on the other end of the spectrum, the bloggers and magazines themselves. The people who more than likely purchase those paparazzi snapped photos and run them. One of those sites is justjared.com. I spoke with the creative mind behind the site, Jared Eng to get his take on the situation.

Jared was in Los Angeles when we chatted. We spoke through a series of emails and he tells me that his site is extremely happy to help lead the charge in what is being referred to as the #NoKidsPolicy.

"This issue has been on my mind for a few years, and for the past year Just Jared actively scaled back on content featuring photos of celebrities' children," he wrote me. "In addition, we always supported celebrities who reached out directly asking that their kids be kept out of the public eye."

In Jared's eyes it's just that simple. I couldn't agree more. No one wants the face of their child plastered over gossip magazines and sites without their permission. Not everyone reading the material is likely to just take in the information. There are people in this world who use that material to stalk and harass. I think it's healthy to be inquisitive and to want to learn or know more, but at a certain point it becomes borderline obsessive and unhealthy; especially when there are children involved.

Whether you're in the public eye or not, we all deserve to spend quality time with our families without being photographed and hounded. I think in this case it's important to remember that golden rule, "treat others how you want to be treated." In this case, I would say it applies.