In this day and age, most people will believe anything they are told without checking the facts.

I can tell you that 70 percent of all statistics are made up for the purpose to see who will believe it.

For my integrity, I’ll tell you that statistic was made up, but how many of you would’ve believed it without fact checking it?

People believe anything, and with the way technology has progressed it has become so easy to spread lies and rumors.

People may read about something, and without checking the facts, will spread what they read, and this just starts a vicious cycle.

You’re probably thinking right now, “how does this affect me and why am I reading this column right now?”

This is a problem that actually affects this campus because people take what they hear and tell it to others on just about anything they hear.

A common rumor that has been spreading since the start of the spring semester is about the beloved Bamca Mexican Grill.

Every few days, people start spreading the rumor that Bamca is closed and or will be closing permanently soon.

Once that starts, people start freaking out and posting on all sorts of things on social media about the news they heard.

This is something that happens literally once a week, and the thing I always thought was, why don’t you just go ask Bamca about what is going on?

To the people who worried about Bamca, don’t worry. The restaurant isn’t closing anytime soon, so you can stop starting up that rumor every few days.

You’ll be surprised to learn what people will tell if you just ask.

But the rumor that seems to run rampant on this campus is the future of the school.

People are always saying that Eastern is closing. People say that they are already applying to different schools to be ready when the school shuts down.

Where did the information that the school is closing even come about?

Every email and news story I’ve read about the future of the school says Eastern is staying open.

You can ask any faculty member here, and they will probably tell you the same thing.

But once someone hears or reads something, they believe it to be true without checking any other source.

You cannot believe everything you see or read if it is not from a credible source.

I wouldn’t consider Yik Yak the most credible or trustworthy social media outlet to get your news from.

Fact checking could change everything.

You are actually contributing to the problem if you are not actually checking if what you read is true.

The most likely outcome of you not checking something is that you will believe it to be true and tell as many people as you can.

Then those people will tell as many people as they can and so on.

If you do this and help spread rumors of things without fact checking, you’re probably known among your circle of friends as an unreliable person or liar, and that’s not something you want to be known as.

There are ways to help stop spreading rumors about the school or anything on campus.

Two easy ways to do it is to just double check or go directly to the source.

How can you assume something about the school if you asked everyone you know except an actual source?

That just doesn’t make any sense.

So the next time you see something online or hear a rumor about something, please fact check about what you learned.

You’ll be doing everyone a favor if you do.

Chris Picazo is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or cepicazo@eiu.edu.