Remember Algorithms and Polarization? While I was working on that piece, I came to the conclusion that I need to clarify something I was beginning to observe. As Americans, I believe we are sharing and devouring information from a single source – social media – and that is why I have issues with the polarization of these mediums. Even though these sources (social media feeds) could be well balanced and contain multiple viewpoints, I believe we are slowly diminishing them with each click.
However, I know many people don’t block or “de-friend” people which means that they could still be getting a steady stream of diverse content. But, this piece isn’t about the algorithms and the automatic filtering that happens on your life’s feed. And I will not discuss – for a very long time – the fact that if you pay to advertise on these sites, you will automatically reach your audience and bump other dishes off the menu. For example, when I release a post from my Facebook page, I organically reach 10-20 people (this means Facebook isn’t automatically posting me into your News Feed). Rather, I am distributed to only a few of the people who have said they want to see my posts. If I pay a measly five or ten dollars, my post is viewed (this means it appears in their News Feed but is not necessarily read) by roughly 2000 to 8000 people. If I paid more, my post would hover on your page near the top for a long period of time. Thus, the more money you pay, the more visibility you get and the more minds you influence.
Nevertheless, my focus in this diatribe isn’t on paying for advertisements, blocking friends, filtering posts, or anything like that. No, my focus is on the content that is being shared and what that means. I am by no means a scientist, I only share my observations with you. Yes, I probably could perform a study where I take a random sample of News Feeds over a set amount of time, collate and code the data based on legitimate sources (this would take a lot of operational definitions on what is legitimate in this day and age), and then publish my results; but, I don’t have time.
What I am beginning to see is no one shares information from – what I consider – credible news outlets. I see Buzzfeed, random blogs (my biggest beef with shared sources), Vice, and even other Facebook pages like I Fucking Love Science (IFLS is another beast I have an issue with but not today). Why is this an issue? This morning I read that North Korea is not afraid of our new sanctions being imposed on them for hacking Sony (how a country with 1,000 computers (I didn’t fact check this number of computers because it isn’t important for my diatribe) hacked Sony is a completely different conversation) and North Korea will now be “sharpening” their military policy in response to our sanctions. What I did find on my personal feed is: “Can you answer these 10 tough trick questions?” (The person got a 99% which makes zero fucking sense because you can’t get a 99% on a 10… never mind (see picture at the bottom for proof))
So what is my point? The quality of news we are receiving is mostly conjecture, based on surveys, produced by internet committee and comments, and comes from sources that have videos online about men trying on women underwear (Buzztime, funny video but not news). However, the worst that I have seen are blog posts from under qualified people discussing highly important topics. Why is this an issue? Ever play telephone? These individuals are researching topics that they may have zero understanding about, and then they are regurgitating it to the masses in an interesting way to produce “likes”. This is the issue, each one of these authors is pulling information from secondary sources and not maintaining those sources. A legitament outlet for news will post corrections when they are incorrect or publish something wrong. I have never seen one of these news “blogs” recant or explain that they were wrong. Not only that, but when a journalist’s incentive system is based on page views they WILL pander to make money. Thus, the journalist will inherently try and make something out of nothing in order to get people to share that nothing until we are at war with North Korea because our society was distracted by “Are you a good person? Answer these ten questions.” Bam, instant validation and that warm fuzzy feeling for the reader and a share or like (While this is appearing in the news: Missiles launched from North Korea hit Okinawa). A hint from Uncle Theodore to you, ten questions will not tell you if you are good person and the quiz is designed to make you feel amazing so you keep coming back for more (like a junky).
So, please, buy a newspaper subscription or two and support real journalists. Yes, real newspapers are depressing, but that is because the world is – on a whole – depressing. Stop hiding behind quizzes and articles that make you feel amazing and pay attention. This rock [Earth] needs our help.
Every time I look at this, I get oddly angry for some reason.