#VoxPopuli | The loudest voice
by Lance Libatique
Misinformation and disinformation are enormous problems online. To help stop the spread, psychologists are increasingly incorporating debunking and digital literacy into their courses.
As a PSHS scholar, do you think false rumors and off-the-wall theories can be corrected by broadcasting the truth, or efforts at correcting rumors can even hurt the cause of truth? What approach, then, should be used to celebrate truth and debunk falsity?
The Internet is built against, not for, truth. With social media posts that speak of the smallest rift like a vast canyon, and news articles that scream anything that might catch your attention, one must realize that our sources of information are designed not to herald what is right, but instead to spread like wildfire by any means. To save ourselves from the increasing tide of false and deceptive information, we must act intelligently as one, singing the truth together with volume, and backing our words with the facts and proof that they lack.
However, the Internet is not like this because of any specific individual. What is incentivized online is content that is sensational, not necessarily correct, as the attention of a user is what funds the online world. However, most users might simply read a sentence or two, look at the image, then continue scrolling for more. Attention is scarce, hence why the Internet calls for anything on it to immediately grab the user’s attention.
It is important to know this as we also act on the same field as anyone else online. If we wish to fight for the truth, we must also fight for the same attention that misinformation fights for from the readers, as otherwise, even a perfect truth will go unheard.
Thus, while we might try to stop deception by correcting people, it is not enough. We must back our words with fact, to differentiate our truth from the false truths that spread elsewhere. Otherwise, what differentiates our words from theirs? We all speak the same language, the same sentences, the same paragraphs. They have flowery words and the ability to stoke the fire of emotion constantly. All we have is proper science to defend the truth.
Speaking as one lucky enough to have been educated in a science high school, to be exposed to hard science and fact constantly, I have learned that truth does not stoke emotion if it does not want to. It does not move itself sensationally, it does not make its presence known. It is simply morally and factually correct, and so it must be defended not by the same emotions that those that lie and deceive employ, but instead, must be defended through the facts that misinformation could never have.
We must cite our sources well, and sing to others of sources that speak the truth. We must reinforce each others’ words, as otherwise, we will go unheard. We fight on the same field as them, an online world starved of attention. While they grab the attention of the world forcibly by hand, we must grab it ourselves by celebrating the truth together. Any one voice may be ignored, but a chorus cannot.
Therefore, on an Internet built against the truth, while it’s impossible to win against its noise, we can guard together against falsehoods. We must be wary of lies, warn others well, use our voices as one, and guard the truth with the one shield of fact that we have — lest we all fall to the lie of the loudest voice.
*This was the winning essay for this school year’s Grade 11 Humanities Festival Essay Writing Contest.
