Social media has become so engrained into our daily activities, it would probably cause mass hysteria if it were somehow removed from our lives.

Let’s face it, we all know people like this:

It’s almost disturbing to me how people will believe just about anything online. It probably irks me more as a journalist, and I live by the mantra, “If your mom tells you that she loves you, check it out.”

It seems I’m not alone in this.

A new study says that more and more people are becoming skeptical about what they read on the pipes. This is news I’m happy to hear. Like rumors in high school, social media is fuel to the gossip fire if false information is spread. This is something we are very cautious of when moderating our Facebook page (and now Google+ page) here at Fox.

When was the last time you watched a big story develop on social media? How long did it take you to buy into the story, and how fast did you jump into the conversation?

… was it so 27 seconds ago?