News vs Misinformation

With ratings, hits, and views being more important than worthwhile or accurate content, we are bombarded with “news” that is twisted to fit the core audience of whatever platform it’s on. Even once-reliably-objective sources have drifted to the right or left - a little further each year. And the advent of X, TikTok and a myriad of other platforms has enabled more precisely targeted messaging to ever more closed-minded audiences who take every post as the truth no matter how outlandish the content.

From a recent Pew Research Poll:

“Today, 37% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they have a lot of or some trust in the information that comes from social media sites. This is nearly on par with the 40% of Republicans who express this level of trust in national news organizations.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, by comparison, 38% have at least some trust in the information that comes from social media sites. This is far below the share of Democrats who express this level of trust in information from national (78%) and local (83%) news organizations.

Overall, young adults are nearly as likely to trust social media as national news outlets.”

        That survey data is telling as social media sites are home to most of the misinformation and propaganda being thrown at disciples of such sites. The audiences for those platforms too often get their “news” exclusively form social media (usually a single source) rather than from national or local news organizations. This provides them with “information” that fits their views and insulates them from anything that might challenge their thinking. Same goes for those who watch only a single national “news” channel.

I’ve read that a Russian intelligence officer stated during the cold war that Russia could bring down the US within several generations by getting us hooked on celebrity, hooked on sports, and hooked on consumerism. He was scarily accurate with that statement as we as a society are addicted to all 3. I’ll add a 4th pillar to that list – technology. All the zombies walking around staring blankly into their phones while ignoring everything around them are proof of that.  

With minds distracted by the latest celebrity scandal, the ever-increasing sports gambling sites and apps, and obtaining the latest (insert your favorite product here) we are prime targets for misinformation. The advent of AI makes it even easier to create propaganda from US based political groups and foreign entities looking to influence thinking and behavior, create chaos, drive extremism, and divide us into smaller and smaller factions that can be more easily pitted against each other.

Critical thinking is becoming a lost skill as unquestioningly absorbing quick, simple sound bites is about all our diminishing attention spans will allow. I’m not advocating for you to stop getting “news” from social media sites. I am making a plea though for you to follow our nephew’s example of getting information from sites and sources across the spectrum and then distilling that into the truth (a dying practice in adults, which makes it even more impressive that he was doing that at 16!).

It is vital to maintain our ability – and willingness – to practice critical thinking and to get our information from a variety of sources so we can continue to grow together instead of breaking into increasingly hostile tribes with no tolerance for those who don’t think and act like us.

Think about that for a while…

www.RetiredandInspiredat55.com  12-09-2024