Sadly, when conspiracy theories, lies, and misinformation become part of any conversation, it is up to the people to do their due diligence and track down the truth.
Latching on to someone's Facebook rant as the truth just because you agree with the rant fails yourself, but more importantly it fails the system designed to keep the stars of democracy aligned. Most folks just “like” the rant and move on to the next Facebook offering. But when it is an important post — for an election, or the state of our health care system, or the homeless, or housing (you get the idea) — do some homework.
Google is at your fingertips, but there are multiple sources of information. We still have libraries. We know people who are in the know, so talk to them. Do not settle. Facebook is only as good as its users and owners, so here’s a consumer alert: social media owners have no guardrails, and it will get worse. AI (artificial intelligence) is here, and it ain’t going anywhere. Fake is real, or is real fake? Who the hell knows anymore.
Trying to sort through the cyber sewer to get to the truth is not for the faint of heart. Masking reality even further with the advent of AI gives licence for anyone to manipulate the conversation in any direction one may wish. This is not a good thing!
Opening doors of anger, conflict, or conspiracy on Facebook or any other site is easy to do. Slamming the door shut is nearly impossible, so be diligent, be thoughtful, before clicking on “post”. One click can start a firestorm where every new comment throws gas on the fire. Soon you have a wildfire, and it can get ugly fast.
Tools are designed to do a specific job. Facebook, X, TikTok: the list goes on. We need to use these tools as they were designed to be used. Sadly, that’s not going to happen on a large scale, but it can happen with you, me, and a little bit of the rest of the world.
So before hitting the “post” button on Facebook, we should ask ourselves a couple of questions. Is the post harmful? Will it lead to conflict, hate, or even an actual attack on an organization or individual? Most important, does the post start a fire, and if so, will you be able to put it out?
Facebook is a wonderful platform when used as a tool to connect, to share, to tell a story through words and pictures. And it’s not just Facebook. Other platforms also have pieces of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Cling to the good! Lower anxiety levels. Bring down the temperature. Guess what: you won’t have to block or remove as many friends.
We just witnessed something out of the twilight zone down south. I just watched the movie Hidden Figures, set in 1961, and highly recommend it. It’s amazing, and I cried: not because of the way these three brilliant Black women were treated because of their skin colour, but because 63 years later it seems the colour of your skin shouldn’t matter (or at the very least it should matter very little). Yet here we are in the year 2024, and it seems maybe not as much progress has been made as many of us had convinced ourselves of.
The president-elect opened a door, and they came out in droves: people with pent-up anger looking for a leader of white America. They found him. It didn’t take long. Some drank the Kool-Aid right away; others waited until the movement grew. He spewed a book of lies and they couldn’t put the book down. It was fiction, but they didn’t care: they had their leader.
He had a boatload of character issues. He was a convicted felon. He had Putin, Musk, AI, and the elected Republican Congress pushing him to the finish line, and he broke the tape first. Now we wait and see if the Rule of Law will withstand the test of time. The forces against it are heavily armed and well-funded. Only time will tell.
Push through the chaos, the conflict, the conspiracies, and stay positive. To quote Michelle Obama, when they go low, we go high. Keep the glass half-full. Do what you can in your community and your own back yard. Let go of the past and do what you can to make a better future. It can be as simple as random acts of kindness. The world needs kindness more than ever right now.
(Note: I am very guilty of some of this myself through the Trump saga, but I’m exhausted and taking a fresh breath to re-evaluate my Facebook priorities. I’m not a smoker, but I think this might be like trying to quit something cold turkey: it won’t be easy.)
The times, they are a-changin’. Sometimes we really need to go outside our comfort zone to find a better path. The cyber path has many a nasty roadblock; take them one at a time, one at a time.
