How the Information (Overwhelm) Age is Hurting Us
How the Information (Overwhelm) Age is Hurting Us
The impact of social media and why our shared core values may prevent us from devouring ourselves.
In November, I wrote this piece proposing the question, “Can There Ever be Peace on Earth?” My goal was to take a deeper look at human nature in regards to conflict and to emphasize the power of purpose when it feels like the world has gone mad.
I also explored how leaders depend on others to further their cause and drum up support (for better or for worse).
If you’ve ever been in a position to lead a group, a company, or a cause, you know there is power in numbers. There is also power in slogans, mantras, campaigns, and consistency.
When we see and hear things regularly we can’t help but to take notice. A catchy slogan, repeated often enough, can make the difference between a rousing firestorm of interest and support or a barely flickering flame.
Today, social media is a catalyst unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s not just slogans that can be repeated and shared, though. Now, it’s visceral videos—slogans on steroids—that cause alarm and rage. Far-fetched ideas that would normally stay hidden in the shadows of a shady bar can now be picked up and shared across the globe in a nanosecond and there are some who are influenced to act on what they see without thinking things through.
In fairness, wonderful ideas that have the power and potential to make life better for others and connect people who may never have met the old fashioned way can be shared instantaneously, too. The challenge, as the consumer, reader, or viewer, is to recognize the difference between these two classes of ideas and to be aware of our ability to be manipulated to react.
Unfortunately, due to the power in numbers, it seems to be getting harder and harder for people to discern shady dark bar ideas from truly pro-social ones. Toss in low impulse control, tribal mentality, and/or emotional content, and people become wildly reactionary.
Plus, facts become irrelevant if you’ve already bought a team’s jersey.
People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe. -Andy Rooney
Separating the Wheat from the Chaff
These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learn anything. - Tom Nichols
Every society needs social guardrails. We can’t expect millions of people with differing foundational ideas about religion, governance, freedom, and security to cohabitate by “hoping for the best”.
Even with our well established social frameworks, constitutions, charters, and religious doctrines, we still face a steady stream of conflict, disagreements, and wars.
Societal order is not a given and I think people forget this.
It requires intentional and vigilent action. It requires talking and debating, not yelling or chanting or screaming in someone’s face. It requires grace and connection not doxxing and canceling. It requires honest attempts to peel back the layers to get to a root belief that energizes someone versus demeaning them for not seeing things your way. Name calling and othering only furthers the divide and then we wonder why we can’t get anywhere productive.
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes there is a very obvious answer and a clear response. Someone tries to abduct a child? Use every part of yourself to prevent it from happening and every part of the law to hold them accountable. This is not the time to sit down and dive into a philosophical conversation about the abductor’s foundational beliefs or spend time explaining why taking someone’s child is morally, spiritually, and psychologically wrong.
If someone violently attacks you or your loved ones? Same as the above.
But what seems to be happening is that people are being attacked and maligned for not being on “the right team”.
The othering is escalating.
As we log into our social media feeds (that we believe connects us to the world), we are voluntarily being spoonfed a steady diet of algorithmically curated videos, words, ideas, and people; and in many ways we are becoming more spiritually malnourished and disconnected.
We think our feeds are feeding (educating) us.
We believe we are getting the full meal (story). But are we?
Could it be possible that the very “oppressive” systems that we shout against may actually be oppressing us by manipulating what we see and what we don’t see. Could the machine be oppressing our ability to think clearly or rationally?
What if we turned the tables on the entire machine by joining hands in solidarity over our shared values? Don’t we have enough in common to find common ground?
None of us can be a part of every cause or issue, but for our society to function in the healthiest way possible we all need to do something. This includes us being honest with ourselves about what we know and what we don’t know.
We also need to come to terms with the fact that our social fabric is tenuous. People have been manipulated and used for someone else’s financial, control, or power since the beginning of time. “Useful idiots”, while not the loveliest term, gained traction for a reason. Now we are swimming in the Information Age and it’s literally drowning us.
How do we know if “the news” being reported isn’t laced with statements and data to lull us towards a particular opinion or outcome? How are we to make decisions and live cooperatively in a society that seems to run on an insatiable thirst for clicks, likes, and money, truth be damned? How do we protect ourselves from becoming a “useful idiot”?
Consider your own values then act accordingly
What do you hold dear? Is it honesty? Is it transparency? Is it humbleness? Is it love?
Do you value your ability to see the humanity in another even if you don’t see eye to eye on the issue du jour?
Are you comfortable asking for clarity if you aren’t sure what someone means or thinks?
Do you keep tabs on your own tendency to jump to conclusions or make assumptions about a person’s intentions or worth due to what a random stranger said on social media or a news pundit or personality told you to think?
Do you take stock of the culture you are swimming in? In other words, do you reside in an echo chamber or do you allow your ideas to be challenged?
Do you shut down any dissent with name calling and dismissal?
Do you ever stop to ask yourself, “What if I’m wrong about this?”
Are you comfortable with some laws being broken if the ends justify the means? What laws? Are you comfortable with other groups that you disagree with doing the same or just the groups that share your beliefs?
Where is your line? When is enough, enough? What will you not tolerate? What will you protect at all costs?
All human brains have hard-wired cognitive biases—biases which act like a monster who has an insatiable appetite for information that it agrees with (regardless of the information’s veracity) and an intense hatred of information that makes it uncomfortable (even if that information is true). This monster can be constrained, but far too many of us don’t know how to, don’t care enough to, and/or don’t want to, and instead we find ways to let the monster loose to do significant damage to our perception of reality.” -Lawrence Eppard
(Quotes in this section were taken from the documentary, “The Poisoning of the American Mind” which I learned about from the Substack publication, Free Black Thought. The documentary attempts to offer a balanced take on what is going on in the world today by highlighting glaring problems within our different wings of government, in our institutions, and in our media. I think it scratched the surface, but sense there are deeper problems at the root of what’s happening in America tied to foreign and domestic parties who want to see America fail and fall. Maybe a post for another time? [wipes sweating brow]
What if we have more in common than news sources and social media will have us believe?
Have you thought about this? Like REALLY, Really thought about this?
It’s so easy to be handed a line to tow. It can be psychologically rewarding to jump on an idea that has momentum and to recite tropes and statements that are receiving praise and attention far and wide. We get a dopamine hit when we are being rewarded for our “virtuous and wonderful” activism.
I’ve experienced it.
I know what it’s like to have something I’ve written, created, or shared go viral. It’s thrilling (and frightening!). I know what it’s like to take a position on a topic and receive accolades or pats on the back. The lure of the dopamine rush is strong. Feeling seen and celebrated is powerful stuff. It’s one of the reasons I take regular breaks from social media because years ago I heard someone say something that really impacted me: We aren’t as great or as awful as strangers would have us believe. To that end, I jokingly suggested that I make a t-shirt that reads:
We all simultaneously Suck and Shine
None of us get this living stuff right all the time. We fail. We lose. We win. We help. Some days we wake up and realize that we really misjudged someone. Some days we find out that what we thought happened didn’t. Sometimes we can see through the propaganda of the media and the Pick Me energy of whatever issue or idea is trending at the moment into the heart of a matter. Despite the poisoning desire to dismiss anyone who disagrees with us we look them in the eyes anyway and realize they are someone’s beloved child, sister, or friend. We stop aiming to battle and start aiming to understand.
As a child, I sang this song in Sunday School:
Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the children of the world.
Whether you are a Jesus believer or not, we’ve been on this Earth long enough to know that humans are fallible, frustrating, opportunistic creatures, and we all need to be loved anyway.
In our messiness is our sameness.
Our imperfections are our connections.
May we each remember this when we find ourselves reaching for a torch and choose to reach for a hand instead.
~Missy