In a world full of endless information available at a touch, some may argue that our society has regressed when it comes to actually analyzing and using critical thinking about what information and content we consume, as well as how we consume it.
In our post-internet society, attention is a currency, and this has led to an attention market. What started as long-form content on apps like YouTube has been monopolized in short-form, easily digestible content from TikToks to Instagram Reels, and even YouTube shorts. Attention is equal to views, comments, shares, likes – and platforms pay users depending upon how much engagement they get and, more importantly, how long they can hold your attention. This has not only led to social media being designed to be as addictive as possible, but also to content creators themselves making content that is designed specifically for the purpose of holding your attention.
This attention-engineered content comes in many shapes and forms, from the titular ragebait (which is content specifically designed to anger the viewer into commenting, and therefore, interacting with the content), to content that’s meant to misinform, such as AI videos that utilize deepfake technology. These are just a few examples of content forms that to the uncritical eye may pass as genuine content.
Social media is meant to have age requirements to prevent this kind of content from reaching vulnerable users, but many children are able to access social media in one way or another – through a parent’s account or unsupervised access – and are growing up consuming social media without the brain development or maturity to understand it. This is reflected in Gen Z and will likely be reflected in Generation Alpha, as many are growing up being surrounded by social media without the ability to differentiate content that is made to upset them and content that is blatantly false. When we take into consideration that 64 percent of Gen Z use TikTok as a search engine, it becomes increasingly concerning where and how people are getting their information.
While some misinformation can be harmless, some can be incredibly harmful. For example, a large body of misinformation was spread about COVID-19 vaccinations during the 2020 pandemic, generating 3.8 million views on Facebook in a 12-month period. This misinformation led to a large-scale decrease in trust in vaccinations and health care professionals as a whole, and AI content generation as we know it now didn’t even exist then. It’s incredibly concerning to see content mass circulated about other topics recently, and with the advent of AI it’s incredibly easy to post a large amount of content very quickly, spreading misinformation further than it could have been just three or four years ago. A recent example of AI spreading misinformation happened in the case of a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a woman who was arrested during the recent protests in Minneapolis. The photo was edited to make it look like she was crying after being detained after a protest, when in the original photo she is calm and composed. This photo was originally circulated by omeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which is deeply concerning as US officials are trusted to share factual information; without proper fact-checking, it likely convinced many viewers that it was true.
These pitfalls are all too common for all kinds of netizens, and it’s important we make an effort in our daily lives to avoid misinformation as much as possible to keep ourselves safe. How do we do that?
According to Arizona’s “clean elections” commission, there are a lot of ways you can keep yourself healthily skeptical and aware of the media you consume. I heavily recommend viewing their page as a whole, but an important point the commission made was about social media bots.
“WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA BOT?,” their website asks.
“A bot is an automated social media account programmed to perform tasks normally associated with human interaction, including: Post content, Follow users, Like posts, Direct message other users, Retweet anything posted by a specific set of users featuring a specific hashtag.”
Social media bots are big proprietors in the amplification of falsehoods.
Overall, I think it’s good to stay aware of this and to reflect on the media you’re consuming and how it may be affecting your opinions and views. Staying educated on current events is extremely important in this political climate.
