Look, I like the Internet. It's a close friend of mine. It's made so many things possible for me--coloring from Uganda and Barcelona, writing and coloring from Kuwait and Cairo, taking an entire group of virtual and real friends in nearly real-time around the world for ten months while editing comics as I went.
In spite of what I'm about to say, I'm a believer in access and transparency.
We're dealing with an immature media. Insta-platform turns out to be somewhat terrifying, because not everyone has a grasp of analysis, legitimate data, and what is delusion and what are facts. I keep crap off my friends list with the judicious use of the FB Lists function, and off here by the comments approval function, but I see comments on other people's walls. And from the election to violence to things as clear-cut as scientific fact, many people seek simple, nuance-free answers. We've lost the culture of experts providing analysis which bears more weight than a guy who's never left his state sitting in a room, watching entertainment news and thinking "Well, my gut knows more than any informed expert."
This certainly isn't new in the world--the written word, propaganda film, radio, TV all had their day--it's just overwhelmingly louder because of the great democratization of media, which is channeled by bottomless pits of money intent on channeling the narrative for corporate, consumer, and political advantage.
It's impossible for me to understand massive lapses in logic and the inability of people to grasp they aren't experts on something they have zero information about. It's impossible for me to understand why people appear to aspire and champion ignorance and hate. What seems to be a collective rush toward mass stupidity is completely beyond my ability to comprehend.
I keep hoping it will go away. This doesn't seem to be working either, because hope is the human condition--it's why each of us continues to exist rather than saying, ah, screw it--but it doesn't go out and solve problems. I watch simple-mindedness take hold in individual and populist narrative...
...and I don't have any idea what we as a nation or world are supposed to do about it.
In spite of what I'm about to say, I'm a believer in access and transparency.
We're dealing with an immature media. Insta-platform turns out to be somewhat terrifying, because not everyone has a grasp of analysis, legitimate data, and what is delusion and what are facts. I keep crap off my friends list with the judicious use of the FB Lists function, and off here by the comments approval function, but I see comments on other people's walls. And from the election to violence to things as clear-cut as scientific fact, many people seek simple, nuance-free answers. We've lost the culture of experts providing analysis which bears more weight than a guy who's never left his state sitting in a room, watching entertainment news and thinking "Well, my gut knows more than any informed expert."
This certainly isn't new in the world--the written word, propaganda film, radio, TV all had their day--it's just overwhelmingly louder because of the great democratization of media, which is channeled by bottomless pits of money intent on channeling the narrative for corporate, consumer, and political advantage.
It's impossible for me to understand massive lapses in logic and the inability of people to grasp they aren't experts on something they have zero information about. It's impossible for me to understand why people appear to aspire and champion ignorance and hate. What seems to be a collective rush toward mass stupidity is completely beyond my ability to comprehend.
I keep hoping it will go away. This doesn't seem to be working either, because hope is the human condition--it's why each of us continues to exist rather than saying, ah, screw it--but it doesn't go out and solve problems. I watch simple-mindedness take hold in individual and populist narrative...
...and I don't have any idea what we as a nation or world are supposed to do about it.
1 comment:
You know how people stop listening because they are thinking up what they are going to say? Similar thing.
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