What a lateral reading technique involves
Launch library · evergreen read
Lateral reading refers to the practice of verifying a source by opening new browser tabs to research it, rather than evaluating a claim solely based on the content and presentation of the original page itself, which can be designed to appear more credible than it actually is, something that tends to matter more with each passing year.
This technique, commonly used by professional fact checkers, allows a reader to quickly check what other sources say about a claim or its origin, providing a broader context that reading a single page in isolation simply cannot offer on its own, a pattern that tends to hold true across many different settings.
Teaching lateral reading as a practical skill, rather than relying solely on general scepticism, gives people a concrete method for verifying claims that can be applied consistently across many different kinds of online content they encounter, which explains why so many practitioners return to the same basic principle.