Given the climate of uncertainty created by the rapid
expansion of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel
coronavirus, it is becoming increasingly relevant to know how we use the
Internet on a daily basis to avoid getting influenced by all the fake
news flying online.
Below are guides that can be helpful:
Guard aginst outrage
Even in normal times, outrage is your biggest risk of becoming
vulnerable to online manipulation. It is easy to fire up, reaches deep
into your sense of right and wrong, and usually spurs a reaction that
makes people on the opposing social or political side outraged too.
Now that it’s easier to be angry than ever, the Internet is not a place to be outraged within.
Slow down
We usually share online content when we feel like it, not when we
think about it. The things that tend to fly around the Internet are
those that sink hooks into our primordial psychologies. Miracle cures
soar on the wings of forlorn hope. Empty shelves are propelled into the
sight of millions by the panic that they cause. Raw emotion is not a
good principle to determine what gets seen and what doesn’t, and simply
slowing down allows the more considered and considerate parts of your
thinking to kick in.
When it comes to actually learning about the world, remember: The
Information that finds you isn’t necessarily the information you want to
find.
Beware the passive scroll
What you see on your social media feed is curated by processes that
can be gamed by malicious actors or mindless profiteers. It’s full of
messages borne there through virtue of the raw emotion that they
inspire. In the coming weeks, it will feel like an endless trudge
through a sometimes uplifting, but more usually panicky place. Just
thumbing your way through it is a bad strategy.
Use the Internet proactively
Make an effort to find what you want and whom you want. Forge trusted
relationships and find the information you need online. But do so
through a deliberate, conscious force of will. Remake your online
lockdown life anew, don’t let it remake you.
Practice digital distancing
Even if you do all of these things, there’s a huge final hurdle to
overcome. Even steering clear of disinformation and manipulation,
immersing yourself in an entirely truthful world of death rates,
ventilators and R0 scores can be harmful too. Rehearsing our own sense
of personal helplessness towards something we cannot control every day
will stoke feelings of fear and anxiety. Just as we practice social
distancing, digital distancing will be necessary as well. Spend ten
minutes a day catching up on what’s happening, but don’t let it become
your entire day.
You might be reading all this, pitying those poor other people who
fall for the miracle cures and the conspiracy theories. But there’s
information out there that can harm you too, and – like everyone else –
it won’t contradict your general view of the world. You are already
immune to being contradicted. Yet, we’re at our most vulnerable not when
our beliefs are being challenged but when they’re being confirmed. When
we’re nodding our head, muttering “I always knew it,” that’s when we
are in danger.
Above everything else is an eighth, golden rule: think about the
information you consume as a diet. It has health consequences for you
and people around you.
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