Rant: I shared a 'missing child' post for a week before a local news site debunked it

So last month, a photo of a little girl with a plea to share her story was all over my feed. The post said she vanished from a park in Springfield. I hit share, my friends shared it, it felt like helping. Then, the local Springfield news channel ran a segment saying the girl in the photo was safe at home in another state, and the whole post was a scam to harvest profile data. My 'helping' was just spreading fear and helping scammers. I felt so dumb. It tipped me off that I was just reacting, not checking. Now I'm torn. On one side, sharing fast can spread real alerts. On the other, you're just amplifying lies if you don't pause. How do you decide when a post is worth sharing versus when it needs a fact-check first?

Update: A stuck elevator in the old courthouse taught me to always check the pit sump pump first.

Got a call for a total shutdown at the historic building downtown, and I spent two hours checking everything from the controller to the door locks. Turns out the pit was flooded from a broken pipe, and the float switch was just jammed with a plastic bag. Anyone else run into weird stuff clogging those switches?

My mom's group chat is convinced a local park fountain cures headaches

Three people sent the same blurry video of a woman drinking from it and saying her migraine vanished. I checked the city's water quality reports from April, and that fountain is on the same line as the public restrooms, with no special treatment. The original video poster sells crystal-infused water bottles for $50 each. Has anyone else seen a hoax that started from someone just trying to sell stuff?

My entire weekend binge plan fell apart when my streaming service crashed on Friday night.

Okay so I finally tried reading comics digitally on my tablet versus my old longbox method, and the difference is way bigger than I thought.

Reflecting on the skill it took to use an english wheel before hydraulic presses took over

Update: That random stop at a clay studio during my road trip...

I always thought pottery was just about making mugs... But watching an artist work with raw earth on a wheel showed me it's about connecting with the ground beneath us. Now every cup I use feels different.