As we grow weary of propaganda, will we become motivated to seek sound information?

For a long time, my mind has been jumbled about what is happening in the world of media. I have been dismayed by the decline of “mainstream” or traditional media and marvelled at the rise of streaming and social media.

On one hand, we witness the allure of vast amounts of user-generated material online as seen on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, and so on. We experience the connections that are made possible between people with similar interests; the global nature of our communication infrastructure, educational opportunities… these are all features of an evolving internet that are quite remarkable.

On the other hand, the list of negative aspects of today’s media environment seems to be growing daily and the trend is alarming: from the addictive nature of certain platforms, doomscrolling behaviour, the proliferation of misinformation, manipulation of facts, fakery and the use of artificial intelligence for nefarious purposes.

We may have temporarily forgotten that in the middle of all this, we, the users, still have some control over what we choose to consume and how we choose to use our minds and our time.

The root of our distraction

In a newsletter for the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada this week, Danielle Groen interviewed journalist Zosia Bielski, who wrote a feature about the roots of our distraction and the role of technology. While there can be no doubt that the software in our devices is designed to capture and hold our attention, scientists note that our minds also seem to be naturally wired for distraction, regardless of technology.

Author and scholar of time management Oliver Burkeman uses this analogy:

"If you put yourself in a cabin in the woods, far from any digital distractions, you’re still perfectly capable of distracting yourself from work by staring out the window or deciding it’s time to clean the kitchen again. But those things are not designed to hold your attention for as long as possible."

That’s what has changed, those built-in features added to our technology that are created to hold us captive for as long as possible. This reminds me of predictions made by Aldous Huxley in the 1930s that we would come to adore technologies that take away our capacity to think.

Why are we so easily taken-in by these devices?

Bielski interviewed a number of scholars and writers for her article. They point out that the online world has become a place to escape our problems, where we go to soothe ourselves; a place for “discomfort avoidance” :

"Burkeman and others I interviewed see our flight down the internet rabbit hole as discomfort avoidance. What are we uncomfortable about? A hiccup in our day. Stress at work. A deadline that really matters. Our relationships. So, a spontaneous scroll through Instagram or Facebook becomes a 'pacifier,' as clinical psychologist Zelana Montminy put it. 'A lot of people feel ashamed by this,' she said. 'But this urge to self-interrupt is the brain’s way of seeking comfort.'

"Burkeman said people are often confounded by their trouble maintaining focus on the things that matter to them. But he sees it as a no-brainer. When the stakes are high, when the prospect of failing is distressing, we distract ourselves, often online. And while scrolling is gratifying in the short-term – we do it with such gusto – these researchers also talked about looking back on those distracted hours or days with pain. What could have been done instead? Progress on an important project, new skills cultivated, phone calls made to friends or family, and so on."

Once we begin to think of our social media as a pacifier, do we want to want to spend that much time in self-soothing or can we find the discipline to move on to something more productive?

Awareness

We are collectively growing wary of the machinery as we learn how logarithms channel our interactions.

A positive aspect of our media evolution is that now we are aware that just about anything we read on social media can be faked or misrepresented.

No one likes being fooled.

Perhaps we will reach a tipping point when we will start to crave credible information.

Ted Gioia, a cultural critic and author, also one of the most popular writers on Substack, recently shared some optimism in this vein:

"Most people really do dislike fake news. They are sickened by fake songs by fake musicians. They are burnt out by the fake online wars, and all the rest. Even those spectacle-driven fake films with their computer-generated effects are now dying at the box office.

And here’s the most salient fact of all: People who have their act together are now taking things very seriously in their own lives. They aren't waiting for guidance from an app from the Apple Store or a post from an influencer.

They’re taking charge on their own initiative. I see them everywhere.

And in the aftermath of the election—where everything was stage-managed and curated to the utmost degree—I expect to see still more of them.

These serious people are the real deal, and don’t have time for fluff. They are already detaching themselves from the businesses and institutions that dish out cotton candy culture.

They will be the new influencers—but don’t expect them to use that degraded word. From their perspective, they will be replacing influencer culture with something much, much stronger.

Or better yet, let’s call them leaders—because that’s what they will be. And that’s such a better word than influencer.

These tough-minded individuals will eventually set the tone for more serious engagement throughout society. This is inevitable—and betting against it is a sucker’s wager.

All the fake AI and virtual reality and gimmicky digital tricks in the world won’t stop it. In fact, my hunch is that the more the tech world serves up their puerile fakery, the more they will accelerate this return to seriousness.

That’s because there’s a hunger for honest human engagement that fakery cannot satiate. This hunger will be fed, sooner or later—and probably sooner.

Five years from now, the cultural landscape will look much different. I expect a lot will change in just the next 12 months.

If they were wise, the tech innovators would join us in building a new age of seriousness. But that hardly matters, because we won’t be waiting for their permission."

-Ted Gioia, writing in his November 6th Honest Broker post, Is there a crisis of seriousness?

Transitioning

So if Gioia is correct, then we may experience a period of transition. During this phase it is even more important that we do our part to use critical thinking skills, to vary our media choices, to support fact-based reporting, to find those sources that are not tied to the goals of a single ideology or political movement, that are acting in the public service by posting information that is transparent, checked and confirmed, worthy of consideration.

I know our lives are already too busy, but as users we have to do some work.

I’m fairly certain that in the near term we’re in for some painful days, as we wade through propaganda and the buffeting that comes with it, but in the end I think we will come to value the importance of fair journalism again and also of the scientific process.

We will become habitual searchers for the “best obtainable version of the truth,” as Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein called it.

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Just an aside: earlier this week I saw an ingenious representation of our relationship with our phones, as posted by Clintavo who writes a newsletter about creativity.

Clintavo invoked J.R.R. Tolkien’s little monster Gollum from The Hobbit and other Lord of the Rings books:

It made me smile, all of us with our gold ring, our “precious” that holds us mysteriously in its power.

On the other side of this, let’s be honest: could anyone ever have imagined such a powerful, small and portable computer at our fingertips? And so many useful applications! We are the first generation to adopt smartphones. Perhaps future generations won’t be merely dazzled by the these devices and will adopt a wiser approach, accessing this power while also taking into consideration the health of our society.

Maybe I’m dreaming?

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