Can ‘Quotes in Context’ combat AI generated content? [or fake news?]

Online Quotes:?You may or may not be aware of it, but I would say at least 50% — if not more — of the quotes that you see used on social media all over the globe are complete bullshit. How do I know? Well here is a ‘quote about insanity’ from Einstein that I wanted to write about.

I went and tried to source this quote for my?Quotes in Context?blog, only to find out that there is no evidence of him saying this at any point in time. Here’s a site where you can fact check or research the source and context of a quote.

Check Quote Authenticity

As kids, we’ve all played some form of the telephone game. You know where someone starts a sentence and whispers in again as it goes around the circle. Misunderstanding is mostly by natural causes because of poor hearing or not understanding a word or something, and occasionally by a mischievous hell-raiser in the group. But the message that starts out is usually quite different from the message that ends up with the last person.

When someone uses a quote to prove a point, how do you know that that quote is being used as it was initially meant by the source, and not being taken out of context? Or was meant to be used in the way it is being used. What if a quote is purposely being used to prove a point that is diametrically opposed to the point of view of the user, or the source? This is why in 2022 and beyond we need to really start going to the source of information and/or holding those making public comments accountable to prove it by going to the source.

In early 2021 I started working on my ‘quotes in context’ blog. I quickly realized that my AT4Y.ca website — along with anything else I’m going to produce — needed more than just a simple citation. Therefore, anytime I use a “quotation” I’m not just going to give the author of that quote, but I’m also going to strive to provide the context with which it was given in.

To the point where I have created a growing list of?Quotes in Context blogs.?For example, a blog goes far beyond just saying?Theroux’s?famous quote, “If you proceed in …” is from his book Walden. That still doesn’t tell you much about what was really going on when he wrote that quote.

If you go to the blog you’ll see that I dove into the book (actually read through it again) and then did a deep dive into the chapter where the quote comes from to expound on what I surmise the context to be, as well as ask others in the comments their thoughts the context was of that quote. Any quote that I am using on my website or posting in 2022 forward I’m giving not only the source of the quote, but also giving the context of the quote. And why I’m doing the second part of that is because so many quotes by so many great people are being used grossly out of context.

That is what I mean by going to the source.

In 2017?I wrote a piece on Medium, “Might ‘education’ be somewhat responsible for the tsunami of alternative facts & fake news?

” The premise was how educators went from asking students to cite multiple sources to allowing a few google links to suffice as research. Did we all inadvertently kill critical thinking?

Furthermore,this concept should be meaningful for all journalists as well. The majority of?fake news?comes fro0m people spewing opinions without facts. When litigation losses (Alex Jones & Fox News) are so frequent they become a ‘cost of doing business’ line item … something is broken.

What would happen if all writers, journalists & broadcasters of integrity started to provide adequate source background of their material?

Maybe one way to combat A.I. generated content is for all writers to double down and provide quotes in context with their work! Thoughts?

Get the AT4Y.ca newsletter