What do I mean by “The Age of Misinformation”? That’s up to you to decide. Humans have been indulging themselves in spreading misinformation since the dawn of time.
But I feel that there has been a shift, even in my own cosmically short lifetime. And I know that I am not alone on this, nor am I the first to notice it, not by a long shot.
Unsurprisingly, our main culprits are once again social media and its new partner-in-crime, “AI”.
Let’s take a trip down time, to the past. Say, the year 1840. I’m an iron mill worker in Victorian England. Between my 14 hour long shift and inhalation of gasses that guarantee my lifespan won’t pass the age of 35; I have “reliable” information that the Queen is secretly controlled by an ancient Sumerian civilization brought forward to do the bidding of the goddess Ki.
I bring my favourite crate to stand on in the public square and yell, as loud as I can, about my thoughts on the Queen. A person confronts me and says that what I am saying is “rubbish”. I call them “ill-informed” and a “foreign informant.” I am subsequently arrested and thrown into a dungeon.
Let’s now come back. The year is 2026. I am Roger, from Cheyenne, Wyoming. I know for a fact that the Indian couple I saw once while I was out were actually communist spies who worked for the CCP, who were illegal immigrants and also Muslim, despite the fact that I never spoke to them.
I log into my social media accounts and write about them, after a posting a photo of the two enjoying a meal on their own that I took without their consent or them knowing any way shape or form. A “liberal” confronts me and says that I am making stuff up. I call him the r-slur, then call him “brainwashed” and a “commie”. I am congratulated by thousands before I am nominated for the 2028 presidential election.
Am I making any sense? The echo-chamber of social media has gotten to a point of no return, I’m afraid. That people like Roger are allowed to make claims like this and not only get away with it but are celebrated for being “brave” and a “patriot.”
How can I be wrong? I hear Roger asking, I asked Grok and he said I was right! Of course, the confirmation-bias confirming machine has confirmed your confirmation-bias, congratulations! What’s that? You even made a fake video of a fake scenario to confirm your fake beliefs and it made the planet less habitable? Aw, how cute of you.
I apologize for the sarcasm, but I’m running out of compassion. I don’t want to sound like a pseudo-intellectual either, or that only I have the correct opinion on things, because I truly don’t. But I’m tired of seeing misinformation, fake pictures and fake videos, everywhere.
Social media companies have figured us out, more so than we give them credit for. At first, they knew to give us things we liked, but some evil geniuses figured out how to keep us on their demented platform for longer, by giving us things that we hate with a passion.
They know if you see something you disagree with rather than agree with, you’re more likely to engage with it. To comment, share or reply to someone. All the while societal trust breaks down and tech CEOs earn more money to spend to make sure life on Earth is doomed.
This isn’t about “freedom of speech.” Unlike the iron mill worker, no one threw Roger into jail. He didn’t threaten anyone and therefore he wasn’t a danger to the public. So, he was free to say the things he wanted. It’s also others’ freedom to disagree with him.
This isn’t a profound statement I am making, but my God the state of social media is more horrible than I thought. I originally opened an Instagram account in 2019 to follow accounts of cat owners and now I have a billion Rogers who have never even left the state that they live in telling me how the protests in Paris are the result of “mass migration”, or whatever that week’s new buzzword is. Sources? Nothing but “AI” hallucinations, of course.
I am tired of the situation. I am tired of thinking how more and more of these people are going into power in elections and I am petrified, dreading next year’s elections in Europe. And the worst part is I know that these people want me and people like me to be scared, so I can’t even feel scared without the weight of guilt on my conscience.
My only hope is that, these miserable people’s miserable lives will continue to be miserable even after these people get in power, which might get them to change their opinions.
I am terrified that the rest of my life will be like this, before of course I inevitably die as a shock trooper in the Water Wars(tm). Actually, I don’t have the physicality for that, best case I become a logistics driver and I get killed by autonomous drones dropping hot molten metal on top of me.
My solution? Destruction of all social media. Why ban only under-13s or 16s? Ban the adults too. In fact, I propose we do a reverse ban. You can only use social media if you are under 16. Sure, it also means severely restricting independent journalism and a space for artists to earn money but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.
New places will pop-up, as is inevitable, which is where the second part of my program begins. We destroy the internet. Force people to go outside, before we destroy the outside. Will it lead to global chaos and economic breakdown? Probably, but is the situation we find ourselves in right now any different?
I can only pray that those satellites in orbit will crash into each other and not only take telecommunications with them but condemn us to this stupid pale blue dot. An ironic, universal message to whatever finds us after we’ve made sure to wipe each other out because we either didn’t like each other’s accent or colour.
I (and I imagine like many others) feel lost. I don’t know what to do. And in the absence of me not doing anything not only is this planet becoming more inhospitable but people are dying. From a lack of resources, access to healthcare, housing, gunfire and bombs. All of which always seem to tie into the people who tell me that the people who speak a different language are the issue and not them. And yet I out of all of us feel guilty.
This wave of protests will come and go. Come the US midterms people will have moved on, since nobody has an attention span left in them and I don’t have to worry about those people because they will not have read this piece until here.
Part of me wonders, was it always like this? De-humanizing a group has been the favourite hobby of humankind forever, but did it always feel this grim? Or is it because everybody’s voices have been amplified to this extent that it feels like this?
It may be hard to believe, but no, I am not a nihilist. Yet I do find relief in the fact that the Sun will eventually swallow the Earth whole and explode promptly after. A fate befitting of Earth more so than any other planet we’ve come to discover in the universe.
Please, look up your sources before you spout nonsense. The last thing I want in the Water Wars other than to die via drone strike is dying while I’m having to listen to yet another Roger.