Member-only story
“Don’t believe everything you read online…”
We’ve all heard this cliche, yet everybody is susceptible to being misled online. I’m not suggesting that people listing credentials is inherently dishonest. But we’ve been lied to. There is a pervasive belief that credibility just happens. And once someone is credible, you can go ahead and trust them.
While this logic is clearly flawed, we all fall for it daily.
Every headline, every post, and every profile we encounter online is a bid for status.
Even your Facebook friends want to sell you an image that is most certainly a sugarcoated version of reality. Unfortunately, the internet is full of people trying to manufacture credibility to push political narratives, scams, and disinformation. These tactics work, so they are routinely used to manipulate the masses. However, this doesn’t make “credibility hacking” inherently unethical.
There is beauty in being able to show vulnerability online. However, to achieve any professional goal, you must (ethically) manufacture credibility. How you use this credibility is what matters. You can use this credibility to share truth instead of lies.
I believe that anyone can create credibility without having to lie.
