Crash Course Navigating Digital Information - Episode 10: Social Media

Ah, Social Media, kind of the villain in our exploration or investigation on how to find reliable information and not spread misinformation/disinformation in our current Wild West online age. I like the joke about the moth going to a podiatrist with its many problems simply because the podiatrist’s light is on. Basically, as we live our lives we need to be conscious of how we’re interacting with the social media in our lives. And even though I’m well aware of the information bubble effect, I know that I need to regulate my exposure to the algorithm and do what I can to remain aware that the information that pops up in my many feeds is more about their business model (to sell advertising to me) than being exposed to “truth.” And despite having a bachelor’s degree in journalism, I have to remember that I have a bias and they are going to feed my bias to their advantage and none of this has anything to do with my welfare or mental health or facts. It’s just business and I need to stay vigilant if I’m going to have social media in my life.

I’m a bit like John Green, in that I’m constantly scrolling through my LinkedIn and Facebook feeds and watching videos constantly on YouTube. I look at posts from many of my friends whom I’ve know for decades and they post like three times a year, maybe, and that’s it. I’m sure that they check their feeds more frequently, but they probably go days if not weeks not pulling up Facebook or Instagram or whatever. And maybe they’re like how I am on instagram, where I check the feed but almost never post anything (just one of my social media accounts where I never developed a habit to post). It does seem foreign to me the idea of going days or weeks without checking online what’s going on in the world. But then, I am a bit of an information junkie.

I do have an account with the New York Times and two local news outlets, City Cast Las Vegas and the Nevada Independent. And I’ve had accounts with Rolling Stone Magazine and the Las Vegas Review Journal. But I tend to, at least, get my news alerts from what pops up in my social media feeds and the news-related podcasts that I’m subscribed to. I never developed the daily watch TV news programs or read with paper at breakfast habits. Back in the 80s and 90s I felt guilty when I did subscribe to physical newspapers and magazines at all of the paper that would pile up mostly unread beyond a cursory scan-through the comics and tech ads. So the emergence of the Internet and then social media was a bit of a godsend for me, knowing full well its shortcomings and non-journalistic business model. Also of concern is how damn hard it can be to verify when something pops up in my feed that might not be true.

When shots were fired at the Trump rally, the information first popped up in my “NextDoor” app feed before anywhere else. I had to go to my New York Times feed to verify that this wasn’t a prank post. And it seemed bizarre that the event DIDN’T show up in my Facebook or LinkedIn feeds at all for that whole first day. The silence seemed very odd, like an actual news event was being squashed or silenced. If anything that reminded me of how the business of social media is NOT journalism but advertising.

But social media isn’t “the enemy” as much as just not really your friend and generally not a good source of information without constant vigilance. One has to be very careful to not fall victim to the myth that it’s bringing unfiltered “truth” to you without you having to seek it out. Nope. It’s just bringing you more of what makes you stay glued to its feeds so that it can put paid advertising in front of your eyeballs as much as possible. It cares nothing for Truth or Facts, just wants to keep you “engaged.” And everyone using these platforms has their agenda and slant and that’s just human nature too. There are bad people out there, but what you experience is an algorithm that has no real agenda of its own, except to keep you in their platform.

Human storytelling always has an agenda. We don’t respond to or remember information without some form of “storytelling.” Period. The facts of our own life are strung together stories that we remember and retell ourselves constantly. They’re not just names, places and dates. There is a small minority who use names/places/dates as their connection to reality, but the vast majority of us connect to the information in the form of stories and that adds a layer to what “actually happened” that we should all be aware of, an not pretend that what we remember is just some form of perfectly recorded reality. That’s not to say that the Truth isn’t in there, or what’s the point of looking for Truth or Facts. It’s just like, with all things human, it’s an imperfect approximation, but it’s still worthwhile information and the point is to try to be as close to the Truth or Facts as possible, knowing that we’re all just as capable of getting it right as getting it wrong. It’s a matter of having multiple independent sources and that no one “owns” the Truth. Anyone tell you anything different, beware, they’re selling you something. Happy trails and Enjoy.