Should you be wary of articles shared by friends on social networks?

On Twitter, users who want to share a news article without having read it receive a notification to alert them. — AFP Relaxnews

On social media, everything is often – if not all the time – a question of appearance, and users don’t hesitate to show a different side online to make themselves look “better” or smarter. Now, research suggests that sharing news articles can improve a user’s self-confidence – even if they haven’t read a single line of the story.

You’ve probably already encountered them in Instagram Stories, or posted on Twitter and Facebook, since many users share news articles via their social media accounts. But what are their reasons for posting these stories?