I like social media.
It helps me keep track of people, of which through my own fault I suppose I wouldn’t know what they were doing or where they were doing it if I didn’t have access to Facebook.
I also like the internet. It’s unbelievable. It’s like having the library and all the smartest people you know at your typing fingertips.
But. And you knew there would be a but.
The fact that we can access millions of people with a keystroke has unprecedented power. And this bears directly on this whole concept of re-tweets and shares and media sound bytes and 24 news and what that means. Especially if you want to know what is merely common as opposed trustworthy and true.
Let me explain a bit better.
There are two pertinent facts to my mind.
The first one is that anyone can publish anything on the internet and nothing about posting it will require proof, vetting or verification. I know everyone says this, but just take a minute and let that soak in.
Let that soak in.
Anyone can post anything.
Even the television, radio, and newspapers are impacted or at least responsive to the whims and whiles of internet publications and postings.
The second thing is something you probably don’t think is true, but it is. As humans we still hold respect for public declaration no matter who or where it comes from. We can’t really imagine anyone putting something in the public arena that isn’t true. I know. You’d think we wouldn’t be that innocent or gullible. But you know