If you're on social media, chances are you've got at least one friend who loves sharing eyebrow-raising posts.

They're someone who you love in real life — so you're not going to just delete them from your friend list. But the stream of conspiracy theories and "natural cancer cures" are wearing thin.

Do you call them out? And if so, how do you do it without ruining your relationship?

Fact-check yourself before you wreck yourself

Before you wade into the comments section with a "well, actually…", it's worth checking your own facts.

Sometimes, misinformation can be obvious. Other times, maybe you're the one who's been fooled.

But a quick revision of the evidence is worthwhile, whether or not you then decide to bring the story up with the family member or friend who's shared it.

Depending on the issue at hand, free fact-checking tools like reverse image searches, bot-spotters and character recognition to translate non-Latin text can be a good way to see if a news story is likely to be false.

For health and science claims that feel overly simplistic or too good to be true, looking at the original study to see who ran it, what the sample size was and where it was conducted can give a better idea of how much credence to give it.

It might be that there's a kernel of truth in the social media post, but it's been extrapolated a bit too far.

"Just because the specific ingredient in a food is very good for you or very bad for you doesn't necessarily mean that eating the whole food is going to make a difference," Lyndal Byford from the Australian Science Media Centre told the ABC earlier this year.

Likewise, "if the chemical is good rubbed on your skin, for example, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be useful if you're eating it as a food", Ms Byford said.

To fight or to hide?

Once you're satisfied that the offending social media post is definitely wrong, then comes the question of whether you should actually speak up or not.

Is it really your job to correct every piece of misinformation? ( Supplied: xkcd )

If seeing these posts is making you anxious, it can be as simple as hiding them from your social media feed, said Jennifer Beckett, a social media and communications expert at the University of Melbourne.

Social media sites such as Facebook usually have options to "mute" or "hide" people or pages so you see less from them without having to unfollow or unfriend.

But if you decide you must speak up, think about what you're hoping to achieve from the situation. Do you think you'll really be able to change your loved one's way of thinking?

"It's a bit of a nightmare to actually change someone's mind," Dr Beckett said.

In trying to change someone's beliefs, you're fighting something called confirmation bias. This is where we deliberately filter out things we don't agree with, and continued exposure to incorrect information leads to the "illusory truth effect", where we believe something just because we've been told it's true a lot, she explained.

"You really need to listen to someone to find out where they're coming from if you want to have any chance of changing their minds," Dr Beckett said.

"Making people feel heard and understood is really the first step to any of this.

"You need to address their concerns. For example, what are they really scared of when they say 'vaccines are bad'?

"Taking the 'but I'm educating you about the science tactic' is what's called a deficit model of communication [based on the belief people simply need more information], and that's what you have to move on from."

Online people are people too

Say you do decide to speak up. That's when it's worth remembering what's on the other side of that line or two of text on screen: another human being.

Tips for navigating spurious social posts... Double check your own facts first

Double check your own facts first Decide whether this post is worth weighing in on

Decide whether this post is worth weighing in on Choose your medium to respond — a private message, phone call or face-to-face chat might be better than getting into a fight in the comments section

Choose your medium to respond — a private message, phone call or face-to-face chat might be better than getting into a fight in the comments section Listen and understand where the other person is coming from; simply bombarding them with facts may not change their mind

Listen and understand where the other person is coming from; simply bombarding them with facts may not change their mind Watch your tone: remember, you're still talking to a real person who deserves respect

People communicating incorrect news to each other is nothing new, but online it's going further, points out Gery Karantzas, a relationship expert at Deakin University.

And what's missing from these online conversations is the nonverbal communications that help us humans understand each other better.

"What does their face look like? What emotions are they giving off?" Dr Karantzas said.

"We're still trying to form our norms and the way to do this. We've been doing face-to-face relationships for thousands of years. We're still trying to work out what we're doing [online]. "

When it comes to calling out fake or misleading stories on social media, Dr Karantzas recommended thinking of how you would approach the situation if you were in the same room as the other person.

"If you afford people particular courtesy and have particular respect in your face-to-face interactions, I don't see why the online world should change that," he said.

"If you wouldn't turn around and say something about someone in public, why would you do it in the virtual world? Why would the rules change?"

He suggested sending a private message or even picking up the phone and having a chat might be a better way of resolving differences than arguing in the public forum of the comments section.

And above all, make sure any contact is respectful.

"People just need to be mindful that when you're engaging in relationships online, they are relationships, just filtered through a digital world. It doesn't make them any less significant," Dr Karantzas said.

"Respectful relationships matter, no matter what the medium."