Context and the Pitfall of Assumptions

Things you see on the internet are not always what they appear to be.

A while back there was a viral post showing a photo of a group of high school students sitting on a bench in front of one of the world's great works of art. All of them were looking at their phones. They were widely shamed as examples of the supposedly "tuned out" generation.

...until it was revealed that they were all actively engaged in a class assignment to record their impressions of the artwork on an app.

So when I saw the video below being shared on Facebook, I stopped to ask myself if there might be a missing context.

It occurred to me that these might not be tourists (the assumption all are making), but Venetian commuters.

For Venetians, the canals are their highway. Would anyone shame you for looking at your phone on a bus into work?

It doesn't matter in the end if these are tourists, commuters, or whatever. My point is that images and videos we see on the web often lack context, and we should always keep that in mind.

Do you have other examples of things on the web that turned out to be not what everyone assumed?

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