Misinformation: The background noise of our time

Ever wondered what it’s like to be part of a generation, unsure of what to believe? Not an external threat, but the present youths are growing up in an environment of misinformation. From when we started to understand that knowing more about the world requires reading the news, we were already in the area where misinformation is normalised. We did not even realise that news could be unverified before spreading, and it could take the place where attention through information could even occur. As we know from our understanding, ‘whatever is written must be true’.

By the time I understood that I cannot believe anything I see or read, It was already too late. After understanding the issues and terms such as misinformation, disinformation, etc., I had an immense distrust of any information. So, I could understand what’s happening to today’s youth as well. The fact-checking of information is not just a curiosity now; it has become a survival technique for us.

Because news or any information could be partly untrue, even by mistake. But as we are the readers, we need to be smart enough to cross-check if the whole issue is accurate or not, for our best interest. Also, because getting the wrong information can seriously mislead us. Suppose any of us just got an interesting rumour about a person. Then, without thinking about whether it's true, we spread it. It should have huge consequences if it were misinformation for sure.

For us, misinformation is basically a background noise, not just some kind of virus to keep avoiding. Because the more we scroll, the more we are being hooked into the reels/shorts where most of the misinformation occurs at present. The truth is now competing with virality. Means that the people who are informing us online by grabbing our attention are mostly into making things viral. Not into the accuracy of the given information. They know, whenever there is something catchy, people will just want to know more, even without trying to think about whether that is misinformation.

A person once told me, ‘What can they do? They are just providing the information by our needs and excitement’. Even though I could not give it a thought by then, I have eventually realized there are our faults as well. We crave more dramatic views for most things now. And as we are more engaged with those, the algorithm is feeding us as well.

As quickly as someone spreads anything dramatic or unique, we consume those like our favourite food. So, there is a pattern going on- we crave, get, and spread it quickly, and do not care about whether it is misinformation or not. We are rewarding the drama, not the accuracy.

Above all, the effect of misinformation is something we need to seriously think about. The mistrust starts from the headlines, hashtags and expands to the details. We are being ‘information fatigued’. Our mind is confused, for the constant need to verify everything. While questioning everything, we are even questioning the truth.

But the silver lining is, we are moving forward with questioning. Which means we are not being totally foolish to believe everything we are seeing. Yes, right now we might be the generation that is floating in misinformation, but we are also being aware. We need to start caring about the truth; it will be the most radical thing we can do.