Five lessons to develop your digital literacy
Pause Then Share is a free five-lesson digital literacy toolkit built for people who want to get sharper at navigating information online. No jargon, just practical skills you can use the next time you’re scrolling through your feed. Each lesson takes about 10–15 minutes and gives you something to practice right away.
About lesson 1
The Fake News Formula
Learn to spot clickbait and misleading headlines
Your brain is not broken. Headlines that make you feel urgent, alarmed, or outraged are engineered to do exactly that. Lesson 1 breaks down the formula behind manipulative headlines so you can recognize them the moment you see them.
The main idea
Before you click, share, or believe any headline, you’ll learn to ask three questions:
WHO is saying this?
WHAT exactly are they claiming?
WHERE is this information from?
If a headline doesn’t give you those answers, it’s probably designed to make you click before you think. Lesson 1 ends with a hands-on practice exercise so you can take this skill straight to your social media feed today.
About lesson 2
Emotional Hijacking
If it makes you furious instantly, it’s probably manipulating you
The content that spreads furthest online isn’t usually the most accurate — it’s the most enraging. Lesson 2 explains why that’s by design. Anger and fear short-circuit the part of your brain that evaluates information critically. The people who profit from misinformation know this, and they count on it.
The uncomfortable truth
The stronger your emotional reaction to a post, the more skeptical you should be — not less! Your outrage is their revenue.
Lesson 2 gives you a practical tool called the 10-Second Pause, as well as one simple rule that can prevent you from spreading most misinformation you’ll ever encounter.
You’ll also work through a comparison exercise that shows how the same real event can be reported in a way designed to enrage versus a way designed to inform, and how differently those feel in your body.
About lesson 3
The Dating Game
Old news recycled as breaking news
Old stories get recycled online constantly — sometimes by accident, sometimes deliberately — because panic spreads faster than facts and clicks pay well. Lesson 3 is about one of the simplest tricks in the misinformation playbook: taking a real story from years ago, stripping the date off of it, and posting it as breaking news.
Why it matters
Acting on outdated information can be harmful, inciting someone to pull savings unnecessarily, avoid a safe medical treatment, or even vote on something that was already resolved. Looking foolish online is the least of it.
The fix is also one of the simplest in this curriculum: always check the date. No date on an article is an automatic red flag. “BREAKING” in a headline is a prompt to verify, not a reason to share. Lesson 3 gives you two clear rules, a comparison exercise using three versions of the same event, and a hands-on challenge: find three posts in your feed, check the date on each one, and ask yourself why anything old is being shared right now. Most people who go through this exercise are surprised by how much recycled content shows up on any given day.
About lesson 4
The Verification Challenge
Can you find this story anywhere else?
Real news gets reported by multiple sources. If something actually happened, Reuters, AP, BBC, and your local news will all be talking about it. Fake news exists in isolation: one random site with a suspicious URL, questionable or missing author names, and a business model built on selling you supplements and spam. Lesson 4 teaches you to use this filter.
The lesson walks you through two real verification exercises side by side: a Facebook hoax that falls apart under scrutiny, and a health study that holds up because multiple credible institutions all report the same findings. You’ll also get a checklist of warning signs that a source is fake and a list of trusted fact-checking sites to bookmark.
Most people are surprised how fast they learn to sniff out when something is false.
About lesson 5
Your Digital Reputation
Would you stake your reputation on this?
Everything you share online says something about you — to your family, your friends, and anyone who trusts you. Lesson 5 makes the stakes concrete: your digital footprint is permanent, and sharing something false doesn’t just make you look bad. It can harm people who click your links, erode trust with people who know better, and train the algorithm to show you more of the same garbage.
The Reputation Test
Before you hit share on anything, ask yourself three questions: Would I be embarrassed if this turns out to be false? Am I willing to stake my reputation on this being true? If someone I respect asked me to prove this, could I? If the answer to any of them is no, then don’t share.
Lesson 5 gives you two practical lists and closes with a standard that ties everything together: share only what you’re 100% confident is true, helpful, and kind, because your integrity matters.
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This short course is free
When you finish you’ll receive a certificate of completion and a handy list of reminders that you can save to your phone or print and keep on your desk.