link to original reddit post by /u/Anenome5
I think back to pre-internet times, and we are the last generation in human history that will have living memory of that time, and it seems like people were genuinely better informed back then. Perhaps all the gatekeeping and expense of creating media meant that only very high quality media was worth pursuing and publishing. I'm sure that isn't the only dimension at play, but we need to get a handle on why the internet has created these malignant groups that are highly misinformed while thinking they are informed, such as flat-earthers, antivaxxers, and now increasingly, pro-Trump republicans.
One paper on this:
"New information platforms feed the ancient instinct people have to find information that syncs with their perspectives "
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/
Confirmation bias is a thing, but now the ability of social media to create communities which are nothing but echo chambers and all dissent can be easily wiped out means these people find a community which confirms their bias and never have to even be confronted by differing points of view.
I have in the past called this the "stones dull stones" effect, a play on 'iron sharpens iron.' You put a few thousand people in a room with the same gripe and they brood over it, until their feelings magnify and take on outsized importance in their lives, resulting in a group like the incels producing several radicalized people willing to commit murder because they can't get a date.
What would've been the village idiot in the days of yore can now get online and find a whole community of village idiots willing to validate his inability to understand how we landed on the moon, and fill his head full of misleading statements about 'cold moonlight' and gravity being fake.
In part the left's attack on truth is partly at fault here, but it's also the effect of easy sharing and publishing of content on social media, and the algorithm that seeks to keep eyeballs on the page and accidentally ended up creating self-reinforcing micro-communities that dropped people into rabbit holes many of which are dead-ends. You watch one youtube video on flat earth and you'll get recommended a dozen more, etc.
This is having very real political ramifications. Arguably Trump could not have won election in a pre-internet era, he was 'memed' into office by the 4channers. Thankfully he was too old to actually engage with that group and didn't really understand them, having only heard that they liked him.
This is made worse by the agenda-news that no longer sticks to pure facts and tries to turn every story into an opinion piece and slant.
“Whatever changes platform companies make, and whatever innovations fact checkers and other journalists put in place, those who want to deceive will adapt to them. Misinformation is not like a plumbing problem you fix. It is a social condition, like crime, that you must constantly monitor and adjust to. Since as far back as the era of radio and before, as Winston Churchill said, ‘A lie can go around the world before the truth gets its pants on.’”
Personally it seems things will get worse on this front and it could lead to strife and political confrontations in the US and elsewhere.
Michael J. Oghia, an author, editor and journalist based in Europe, said he expects a worsening of the information environment due to five things: “1) The spread of misinformation and hate; 2) Inflammation, sociocultural conflict and violence; 3) The breakdown of socially accepted/agreed-upon knowledge and what constitutes ‘fact.’ 4) A new digital divide of those subscribed (and ultimately controlled) by misinformation and those who are ‘enlightened’ by information based on reason, logic, scientific inquiry and critical thinking. 5) Further divides between communities, so that as we are more connected we are farther apart. And many others.”
Thoughts? What can turn this around? If news is ultimately a question of trust, how can we trust the news. If we're all liable to be divided into our personally-crafted algorithm spaces, what room is there for mutual-cooperation and understanding.
Perhaps this will lead into the crisis which ultimately destabilizes the USA and elsewhere, because were does this trend stop? If it gets worse for decades, it's harm to imagine anything other than turning into serious strife.