So, it is Friday, the day I dislike the most, because something about this day makes me tired. Maybe it’s the busy week that has passed before. But nonetheless as is the habit like every night before I go to sleep, I switch on the television for a while.
But I am distracted by a message on my phone, it’s one of my good friends, telling how he is craving for pizza which he last had about seven months ago and this led to a whole conversation about when we first ate pizza and how sometimes home-made pizzas taste the best.
The end of the conversation brought my attention back to the television and I had no idea what the video playing on the television screen was about. A man in a blue t-shirt and an aviator shaped spectacle was speaking on a podcast about some horrific experience that his friend had. He was narrating the incident very well hence I continued to watch it and the next thing I know he is speaking of some conspiracy about misinformation being intentionally spread to keep the society running in a certain manner while it still believed that it was functioning independently.
I heard it for a while, I don’t know how much of it is true, but if anything practical that I could derive was the spreading of misinformation. It is a real thing and it has been for a long while, nowadays the spread of misinformation and the motive can be clearly seen on social media, for example spam accounts commenting and trying to defend certain well-known personalities who might have been exposed for their illegal escapades.
The vast amount of information one can get their hands on today with ease has led to the similar amount of ease in manipulating the information and presenting it with unwarranted additions and subtractions. In a developed country it might not cause a problem of that depth but in a developing country like mine I have seen a complete set of views and opinions springing out branches from misleading information, and it can sometimes become very dangerous, like a conflict between two groups of people with different beliefs.
There is a feeling of uncertainty that is on the rise, it is slowly leading to distrust among people with them having their suspicion of the simplest things, there are people who even double check the news being told on the news channel.
Initially the misinformation was mostly within and around politics, everyone knew that, but in recent times with the help of social media it has spread to every corner. There are people who have made it their profession and are earning on spreading misinformation.
The key is definitely to become more aware and somehow try to make a shift in this tide, even if little, towards something authentic and believable.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 