The era of misinformation
Stephen Hawking said “We are facing an era where people would rather believe viral lies than inconvenient facts.”. In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would join Twitter and no longer fact-check information on its site. Libel laws aside, anyone can post on these sites anything about anyone or without repercussion. We are in the age of misinformation.
Research has shown that misinformation spreads significantly faster online than factual posts. Repeated exposure to such misinformation leads to cognitive bias in shifting belief and distrust. The Mueller Report (2019) demonstrated how Russian state bodies used misinformation posts to influence US voter opinions. During the COVID years and today, misinformation on health issues continues to cause medical practitioner concern. In Britain we are not immune, misinformation online has been identified as contributing to rioting, hate crimes and xenophobia.
For those who regularly engage with social media, the rules have changed. Deep down we probably all knew that the influencer doesn’t live quite as perfect a life as they portray; or they may get paid to promote the amazing new product they’ve got in a “haul”. Experienced social media users know that. What’s changing is a bit more insidious.
Campaigns have become much more subtle. Many will dismiss the “mainstream media” as not telling the truth or being biased – fake news. Instead we see videos coming out of Ukraine suggesting that the war is limited and that actually Ukrainians support Putin; Black Lives Matter accounts have been created to discourage black people from voting or engaging in politics; even Mumsnet has regular anti-trans posts casually mentioning a global “LGBTQ agenda”. Subtle campaigns where individual posts add up to a wider narrative.
It happened in Germany a hundred years ago, ending in probably the worst crimes ever meted out on groups of people. Misinformation campaigns, disrupting political discourse, undermining the media, seeking to ban things they disagree with, blaming minorities. But nowadays we have the leaders of the social media companies actively involved and the issue is increasingly global.
Hitler Youth burning books they considered dangerous or against their values.
We are in the Christian season of Lent. That’s a time of fasting, self-reflection, confession and denial. Many Christians abstain from luxuries and, increasingly, social media. Lent is traditionally a time of introspection. Yet at the end of Lent, we celebrate Easter, a time when Jesus takes on all the troubles of the world, and, through his sacrifice, sets us free.
Jesus likewise lived in a time of division: the schism between the Jews and Samaritans continued; non-Jews, particularly Greeks were seen as having too much soft-influence; the Romans occupied; the Jewish leadership was divided; and there were at least Judas the Galilean, Theudas and John the Baptist were seen as contenders for the post of Messiah.
We live in an imperfect world. It’s easy to say that everything is much worse now than it was and there is a natural nostalgia for what we knew. The world is changing, the balance of power is probably shifting and it’s uncomfortable for us. But the world has always changed, we’ve always changed, even Colwall has always changed.
So, are we in a similar position to 100 years ago? I don’t know, I pray that we’re not. I also know that there is a balance – there is much positivity in the world too. Beneath the headlines and memes, there has been love demonstrated during the Israel-Gaza war; thousands of young people in Britain volunteer with others from different communities; tech owners are funding the climate work that President Trump has pulled out of. There is much good and above all, hope.
Perhaps this is our Lent. Our time of penance and introspection, working out who we are and want to be, before the absolute joy and gift of everlasting hope at Easter, the future.
Best wishes
Revd. Andrew
PS Stephen Hawking didn’t say that quote. It’s misinformation from social media!