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| Image from https://www.mindfuljourneyman.com/blog/tmi |
I'm not saying those platforms were not without their flaws. Stiff upper lip BBC, the more liberal (at the time) ITV, and the papers - the broadsheets and red tops with their undoubted political bias and sometimes (especially the red tops) ridiculous (and definitely made up) stories, but it all happened at a calm pace.
Now, we have social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and a plethora of other "platforms" pinging us with in your face news and comment 24/7. Before I get too far into this post, in full disclosure, I'm a user of all the aforementioned apps (and others).
Driven by the uptake in mobile devices over the last two decades, there are undoubtedly real positives to social media. Breaking news don't have to wait until the 6pm television news broadcast or the next days paper. We know stuff the minute it happens through Twitter post. I guess that's good, but it can be constant and also distracting, especially if you have notifications tuned on and your device is pinging, vibrating or just lighting up every few moments.
It's also great for sharing - the ability to share comment, photo's audit and video with friends, family (and mostly complete strangers) can be fun as well as useful. I imagine that my children will stay in touch with friends from school all there life now, whereas I lost touch with many of my friends when I moved away from where I grew up (luckily, and through the very platform of social media) I've been able to reconnect with some of my best friends in the last couple of years.
The first is that it's far to easy to get overloaded
However, there are some significant downsides to social media too.
Some people believe what they read without any thought as to the accuracy of what's being said. Fake news, either unintentional or deliberate is a pervasive ailment in today's society. I have "friends" on some platforms who I'm sure just blind hit "share" or "retweet" without any thought as to the source or truth of the "stories" they are passing on. And that's when there's even a story. Some of the crap content on these platforms is unbelievable. I think I've mentioned before the type of post that urges you to name (for example) the car you passed your test in or your top 10 places to visit. Many people assume this is a game and give their info and share publicly, not considering that the "bots" that harvest all this stuff could be used by nefarious people to identify passwords.
But the above is the tip of the iceberg. Often naive individuals who don't know what they are doing. As opposed to those who deliberately set out to misinform for reasons of their own making.
Sadly, throughout this pandemic and the Brexit shambles (the two hottest topics of news in the last year), we've seen more and more people using social media to flaunt their message, often seemingly doing this for the clicks and/or shares or to deliberately create controversial responses. The trouble is no one knows who to believe any more.
I'm paraphrasing something I read here, but who would you rather believe about issues around the pandemic? A qualified, practising medic or other health practitioner working on the front line, or Bob from down the snooker club who knows a friend of a friend who thinks Covid's only a cough?
The sad reality is that many people believe Bob, because they follow him on Twitter or Facebook and he's a good laugh or support the team they support.
Confusing the situation even more, are those who probably should know better, but for some reason want to stir the message. There are plenty of examples of actual/alleged health professionals who if not Covid deniers directly, are certainly giving the message that it's not as bad as an Intensive Care consultant I follow on Twitter is saying. I cannot directly prove what the IC consultant is saying either, but I know who I'm more likely to believe.
Then there are are examples of supposed "experts" in their field who are saying the pandemic isn't as bad as it's being portrayed.
When you delve into any of these posts and their replies, and other comment, it becomes a mire of disinformation, contested opinions and potential untruths wrapped around a very real and critical issue. And all of this is being played out in near real time, on multiple platforms where people are soaking it up through their platform of choice, and relaying it onwards.
I have seen (I'm sure we all have) some horrific statements, accusations and comments that I can't believe that any sane and reasonable person would dare to say. But it's all "OK" because it's people hiding behind their alias on Twitter or Facebook. And it can be/is depressing. There's so much crud there, it's difficult to differentiate the real and positive stuff from the codswallop and bile.
So what to do? I could just turn it off I suppose, but I can't I'm addicted to - well I'm not sure if it's my device or the content it delivers, but I use social media for many good things, so I'm going to keep going.
Separating the wheat from the chaff is the challenge
Update:
Somewhat co-incidentally, a person I follow on Twitter posted this today...
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