The Information Age is Failing Us
Image by William Harryman
The Internet was supposed to be the great equalizer. For a while it was. Anyone could publish anything and information was widely available to anyone with a modem. But it has led to the decline of investigative journalism, which provided society with well respected information based on corroborated evidence according to editorial norms.
It’s still true that the Internet enables us to find niche products, services, and information that would otherwise be unavailable to the general public. But even that benefit is being crowded out by social media and fake news. The democratism of information has been coopted by big media’s control over search engine optimization (SEO).
A little research on this matter should leave little doubt. The public is no better informed than they were 30 years ago. However, this is a subjective matter, open to interpretation. There is do doubt that more information is available and more people are presented with more information. Unfortunately I don’t think *more* information has made society *better* informed. As a society, we are like the story of 3 blind men touching different parts of an elephant and proclaiming it to (wrongly) be different things based on what part of the elephant they are touching. Except now we are the blind man touching with two hands instead of one. We have twice as much information. But are no better informed.
And there are no changes on the horizon to indicate society will become better informed in the future. It’s true that the qualifications of students at the world’s leading schools has gotten more competitive, and scientific progress is accellerating. But this is only evidence that we are becoming more informed. Because at the same time authoritarian regimes are taking control of more and more countries supported by narrow minded populations. Brexit and Trump are but two examples where more information have lead to poorly informed public decisions. Even if you support these regimes, you can’t deny that most people’s decisions were made on gut feelings despite the availability of information.
The fact is, people are not being taught critical thinking skills. Sure, you need to cite your sources in school papers. But very few people know how to construct a logical argument without resorting to an emotional plea. Just watch Fox Opinion for an example of what I mean. That channel reaches millions of people using select evidence and circular reasoning to produce an emotional conclusion. In comparison, look at the health of local and nationally published responsibly invesigated journalism.
In considering what changes are needed to produce a better informed public, nothing short of a radical transformation is required. It is not enough to proclaim that teachers should instruct students on how to be critical thinkers. That is already a goal of any educator after meeting minimum standards of competency in reading, writing and arithmetic. Shutting down Fox Opinion is a rediculous idea, too, as censorship must be reserved for security purposes alone. One friend of mine suggested we make “marketing” illeagal as it is just manipulation. But in the USA, that is protected under Free Speech in the Constitution.
So if you can’t put a lid on bad information, and you can’t imbue the public with critical thinking, then what can be done? I’d like to know. Because from my viewpoint, the information age sure looks to be failing us.
