We need to open a dialogue around individual responsibility in the digital age. More specifically: a discussion about one of the core values we should hold (or at least be aware of). That, along with the acknowledgment that there are real consequences to our growing trend of societal groupthink, needs to be at the forefront of our dialogue.
The internet has fundamentally changed the manner through which we interact with information. No longer do we have to rely on intermediaries to facilitate the reliable dissemination of information. That, coupled with a near instantaneous speed of transmission, puts a tremendous amount of power into our hands and is our responsibility (to ourselves and the communities in which we participate) to hold ourselves to a standard. This standard is not something one derives, instead it rises naturally from the types of content the populous chooses to share and consume.
There is real power online and, like all power, its net impact on society is subject to how it is used. Instead of utilizing the internet as a platform to connect the world—relentlessly pursing a more democratic world—it is currently used to erect boundaries and debate meaningless semantics. Instead of contributing to the global dialogue, it is much more common to endlessly scroll through a few core "content curators" (YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, etc.) than it is to use the internet as a productive tool for continuous self improvement and education. Not only does this distract from the underlying issues which we must start to address but it also serves to generate profits for the curators instead of the creators.
It has become obvious that our journalistic pillars are choosing profits over integrity. We’re constantly bombarded by imagery explaining to us what we should eat, watch or yearn for but we differentiate it as advertising. Unfortunately, the temptation of potential advertising revenue has spawned a further bastardized form of pseudo-journalism. Massive companies, focused on selling our eyeballs to the forbearers of a disgusting consumer driven culture, blatantly abuse the written word, and the trust of an unsuspecting public, for short term profit. Little thought, it seems, is given to the potential long term impact this degradation of the written word masquerading as journalism could have on a society (especially the impact on individuals on each level of the social strata).
A second-order effect of the popularity these websites have garnered over the recent years is an explosion of online content, noise, specifically designed to look and feel like information (read: “Branded Content”). This has had the disheartening result of making it even harder for individuals attempting to utilize the internet as a tool to differentiate objective fact and paid opinions presented as fact. The utility of the internet itself is getting lost in a flood of listicles. It is up to us, the general populous, to leverage the internet in a way which is not only self-satiating—as our digital compendiums of shared knowledge (smartphones) seem to have found a permanent resting place on our person—but also for the betterment of society.
We choose the level of discourse we wish to participate in and, by forcing ourselves to have an opinion on everything, we are stagnating its rise. The solution (read: first step) is simple. We need to stop feeling forced to have an opinion on every issue or event. Let’s take a break and stop skimming all of those news headlines. If you have something to say, write it down and share it. If you care about a cause, read multiple sources (and perspectives) before passing judgement. And if someone has the courage to admit not knowing about a particular topic, instead of stigmatizing, help educate them; don’t confuse this for forcing your perspective on them.