We used to believe access to the Internet and information would enlighten the world, we were wrong, and this is why.
Episode #11-27 released on March 2, 2021
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It was widely believed that with the Internet being accessible to more and more individuals around the world, that the population would be more informed, but as the years have shown, this has not been the case. These are the reasons why the Internet has not helped the world as we believed it would.
Social media is one of the biggest reasons why the amount of misinformation is so high. There is a lot of confusion when it comes to the validity of opinion and what constitutes facts. Due to the very nature of social media, it is incredibly hard and even currently impractical to fact check every post entire societies put up, and this means that there are a lot of people out there, that have tricked others into believing inaccurate claims, whether maliciously or through a thought process that has been enabled by a society for a while.
The second biggest issue, websites. Anyone can make a website, especially with services that create blogs effortlessly. Blogs are an important source of information in many cases, but many blogs out there do a great disservice by prioritizing opinions over facts when coming to subjects of science, society, etc. Because some bloggers have such huge audiences, they can often be considered the same as a news website.
The third biggest issue, forums, and online communities. A universal place where anyone can communicate is important, but the same issues as for websites exists. Since there is no barrier to entry, anyone can post information, and that information may not be accurate or heavily influenced by opinions.
A really big issue online, the search query bias, and that is the biggest problem with the Internet and comes down to how you search for information. The way you search for information determines which information will be presented to you, whether it is the good or bad social media groups, websites or online communities.
Pointing out issues will not get anyone anywhere until we learn how to process information and verify the validity of the information. It is important to note how to search the internet properly. An impartial search may be hard to come by, by anyone, but next time you want to look up anything, go to Wikipedia, look at the sources, go to Google and use Google Scholar, read Scientific Journals, and ask actual experts about the subject, because there is no one person who knows all and everything.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net