The Age of Misinformation: Is the Truth Dead?

We live in an era of distrust. People of all backgrounds and political affiliations are increasingly distrusting the individuals, the platforms, and even the news media companies that present them with information. And on top of that, we’re learning about malicious actors intentionally trying to manipulate the public with bad information. We entered into the 2000s believing we were building the information age, but it’s turned into something closer to the “misinformation age.” Is the truth dead? What’s responsible for this problem, and how can we move forward with a reliable sense of what’s true? Information Accessibility Information accessibility seemed like it would immediately democratize news (and information in general). And to be sure, this has inspired a wave of transparency across some industries and organizations. However, this isn’t exclusively a “good” thing for truth. For starters, accessibility works both ways. Thanks to the internet, anyone can search for anything they want—meaning they can conduct their own research. But it also means that anyone can create any kind of content they want—which means they can write a blog post about how all U.S. presidents have secretly been cyborgs and nobody can stop them. The combination of these effects means it’s possible for anyone to find almost any information. With confirmation bias and information accessibility in play, you can find a source that backs up your beliefs — no matter how wildly untrue they are. Echo Chambers The plethora of information bracketed in bias, delivered directly to your favored sites — leads to the effects of echo chambers. An echo chamber is any kind of community or platform where people tend to share the same opinions, limiting the influence of novel or competing thoughts. For example, if you frequently post on a forum about how great the Star Wars prequels were and you ban anyone who says they were awful, you’ll find yourself in a self-sustained community that only believes the Star Wars prequels were good. Echo chambers have devastating effects, especially on a large scale. For starters, people in an echo chamber don’t know they’re in an echo chamber, and they’re inclined to double down on their beliefs — regardless of how much they do or do not reflect reality. On top of that, echo chambers have a tendency to ridicule and exaggerate the beliefs of others, resulting in distorted thinking about whatever the “other side” is. If you personally subscribe to Star Wars prequel quality, this is no big deal. The danger comes when the echo chamber rings in someone’s head as “true” and brings about “a causation.” Causation is the action and there is always a consequence to the action. What is the consequence of those doubting the validity of a pandemic or questioning the legitimacy of a political candidate? People can be inspired to take drastic—and sometimes violent—action. Echo chambers don’t distort the truth; they just serve as a kind of filter that eventually leads to distorted thinking. They make it harder to find the truth, or be sure that what you’re reading is the truth. Attention Spans, the News Cycle, and Headline Impact We also need to look at the complicated interactions between human attention spans, the news cycle, and the current state of news media overall. Over time, the news model has changed. The rollout of 24-hour news broadcasts, early in the internet’s development, incentivized media companies to release new information as quickly as possi…