I mean, misinformation has been a problem for as long as humans have existed. The overabundance of information and misinformation is new, but not their existence.
Yeah although misinformation is recently on the rise, there is that overabundance of information, I still feel like we’re in perhaps the easiest era ever for verifying facts.
In the past when I called bullshit on my friend’s factoids, there wasn’t much I could do unless I went to a library and maybe there’d be a book on it, and I’d have not much choice but to trust that book. I believed so much nonsense people told me before that I can look up and discuss on a global knowledge in my pocket now, albeit requiring skill to do properly though
I think that’s it’s more just information in general that’s on the rise. As you mention, those of us who grew up before the internet remember believing a lot of bullshit about a lot of things because there was no easy way to verify it. Now there is, but there is so much information out there that you can’t fact check it all and some shit ends up getting through and people who lack this ability fall down bullshit rabbit holes. But I do think that people that are able to fact check are getting better and better informed at a good pace.
Yeah. There was that one ancient Greek historian that made up a bunch. Then there were people that altered historic documents to provide evidence that someone or other actually existed.
I mean, misinformation has been a problem for as long as humans have existed. The overabundance of information and misinformation is new, but not their existence.
Yeah although misinformation is recently on the rise, there is that overabundance of information, I still feel like we’re in perhaps the easiest era ever for verifying facts.
In the past when I called bullshit on my friend’s factoids, there wasn’t much I could do unless I went to a library and maybe there’d be a book on it, and I’d have not much choice but to trust that book. I believed so much nonsense people told me before that I can look up and discuss on a global knowledge in my pocket now, albeit requiring skill to do properly though
I think that’s it’s more just information in general that’s on the rise. As you mention, those of us who grew up before the internet remember believing a lot of bullshit about a lot of things because there was no easy way to verify it. Now there is, but there is so much information out there that you can’t fact check it all and some shit ends up getting through and people who lack this ability fall down bullshit rabbit holes. But I do think that people that are able to fact check are getting better and better informed at a good pace.
Yeah. There was that one ancient Greek historian that made up a bunch. Then there were people that altered historic documents to provide evidence that someone or other actually existed.
The reach, speed, and scale of misinformation campaigns is certainly much increased.
Information, too.