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Tuesday 17 November 2020

The information age - full of misinformation

Apparently we are living in the Information Age, we are now exposed to an unlimited supply of data that even the most astute and educated individuals in the history of the world have never been exposed to before.


In not only previous generations but previous cultures, knowledge was power. Only the elite were educated, the masses were dominated by the ruling class left to fend for themselves. Hence, only royalty and nobility were educated; an argument may be put forward that this was to keep the elite in power - it's hard to deny.

Unfortunately this almost unlimited supply of information has somehow been corrupted with misinformation, conspiracy theories and interference by hostile governments and groups. The internet is the tool to spread misinformation, ironically, this should be the method to share true and correct information.

Yet, what I see on forums and online discussions is anything but informed and rational discussion. The lack of knowledge presented when an individual clearly has the ability to research topics and information from reputable sources is reasonably straightforward.

However, this is rarely the case as next to nobody owns encyclopedias anymore, people don’t have reference books or cite published and peer reviewed research, they prefer to reference Youtube, alternative news sites instead of mainstream news.

Now, whilst some better known sites have gone tabloid, the genuine news sites are definitely easy to spot. It isn’t difficult to work out what is a genuine news site, yet, many seem incapable to do so from the flat earth society, faked moon landings, the US government staging the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Area 51 other alien stories.

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