I built two free research-backed tools that are already live. The Identity Map helps you see how your social identities shape what you believe. The Network Diversity Audit shows how diverse your network really is, and what that means for how you process information.
matthewfacciani.github.io/tools/
I launched IgnoreMore.com this week! It's a suite of free tools for protecting your attention online. The first tool helps you decide whether a comment is worth your energy — reply, ignore, or block, grounded in research. Still coming soon, but I'd love your input while I build it.
“We’ve just banded together as a group of concerned citizens who really had enough of the way things were going”
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
"Ultimately, the memo appears to be yet another example of majoring in the minors and political theater on food issues from Secretary Kennedy and his MAHA movement."
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
Google's reverse image search is another great starting point if the image is not in this website. I share other useful verification tools here:
matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/your-digit...
If you see a photo online and you're not sure if it's real or not, here is a free website that lets you scan through fake images that were debunked, and it's updated daily!
imagewhisperer.org/factcheck-db/
I built a tool that tells you whether to reply, ignore, or block a comment you received online — with a simple explanation grounded in research. It's called the Critical Ignoring Companion and it's almost ready. Here's a sneak peek.
New analysis shows that Twitter/X is a massive right-wing echo chamber. Many of us predicted this would happen from the platform changes happening years ago, and now we have data to confirm many people's experience.
But in all seriousness — the point isn't to outsource your judgment. It's to train it. Use the tool enough times and you start recognizing these patterns yourself. That's the whole idea.
Someone already commented on my critical ignoring tool to tell me they don't need a critical ignoring tool. I pasted their comment into the tool. It said ignore. The tool works!
It's early and I want your input! Read more about this on my newsletter or join the beta, share feedback, or just stay in the loop. I want this to be as helpful as possible so your input shapes what this becomes.
matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/i-study-ho...
The Critical Ignoring Companion lives at IgnoreMore.com — a suite of tools for reclaiming your attention and time online. Research shows we spend far more time online than we actually want to. This isn't a willpower problem. It's a structural one. These tools are built to close that gap
First, the Misguided Toolkit: free tools for understanding your own biases and information ecosystem. Two are live now: → Identity Map: visualize how your identities shape what you believe → Network Diversity Audit: how diverse are your network and social feeds?
matthewfacciani.github.io/tools/
I've spent years studying why people get misled online, how misinformation spreads, why we fall for it, and how our networks shape what we believe. The research is solid. But knowing the science isn't enough. People need something they can actually use. So I started building tools.
I built a tool that tells you whether to reply, ignore, or block a comment you received online — with a simple explanation grounded in research. It's called the Critical Ignoring Companion and it's almost ready. Here's a sneak peek.
A new paper by @sachaltay.bsky.social makes the case that fighting misinformation isn’t just about debunking, it’s about fixing the broader system: rebuilding trust, strengthening institutions, and expanding access to reliable information. I agree!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Addressing the false claims directly instead of attacking expertise of the person making the claim
New study finds that correcting false health claims directly is as effective or more effective than trying to discredit the source, even if they lack expertise.
iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
New Trump budget proposal would drastically cut science funding while adding 1.5 trillion in military spending (a 44% increase).
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)
More context on this #Artemis II image:
* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right
* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕
I also hate making videos of myself, so that’s another deterrent. For now, I’ll stick to text-based content focused on equipping people with media literacy skills.
I’ve considered breaking down the common manipulation tactics used by internet grifters. But many of them are quick to threaten or file lawsuits over criticism, and I don’t have the resources to deal with legal fees, even if I’d likely win.
Hospital food nutrition is about keeping people alive. Celebrating this memo for "healthier" hospital food as a MAHA win is a superficial victory: it sounds good, but ignores the reality that patients often need the very foods being criticized.
kcklatt.substack.com/p/credit-whe...
I often talk about the importance of critical ignoring, and here I apply those ideas specifically to content creators navigating a noisy, algorithm-driven environment.
newscreatorcorps.org/2026/04/crit...
All the data points that it's not true at all, and Gen Z is very secular, but one Catholic content creator disagrees, so Washpo writes an article about it.
New study finds that framing vaccines as a matter of personal freedom can meaningfully shift vaccine-hesitant people toward acceptance, while standard government-recommendation messaging may actually backfire with that group.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
I had concerns about herding and bias in betting markets, and I still do! But when I treated them as just one input in my own assessment, I ended up thinking Trump would win. More broadly, people tend to fixate on those who get a high-profile prediction right once, even if they’ve had many misses.
Watching a YouTube “professor” get rich from one correct 2024 election prediction (ignore the rest) and realizing I missed my chance to become a YouTube grifter from also predicting a Trump win… and also because of those pesky morals.
Also, conservative-only commenters were more than four times as likely to engage in partisan warrior behavior compared to liberal-only commenters.
