See Through the Noise

By Brendan Chou / Winter 2020

The contemporary American lifestyle involves a frequent overload of information that burdens the senses, affecting both body and mind in a way that holds serious implications on quality of life. I will analyze the modern struggles faced by the everyday people, the deeper causes and roots that perpetuate such an environment, as well as potential guidelines and solutions to tackle the conundrum our society is in today.

The condition known as information overload, although considered by many to be a modern phenomenon, has historical ties that date back many centuries ago in regards to the abundance of existing literature. In evolving societies where reading and writing ability was no longer restricted to the wealthy and elite, more and more books were being produced and consumed by the general public. Despite the abundance of advantages that an increase in educative materials brought for the general population, it was quickly noted by scientists, philosophers, and scholars alike that such a wealth of knowledge could lose its value and possibly even be detrimental to learning when provided in overwhelming quantities that cannot not be digested by the mind of a single individual. In a similar vein, a growing number of concerns with the authenticity and quality control of printed texts emerged as early as the 1700s. The exponential rise in availability of reading material and shrinking barriers to entry for new writers during this time period produced what some saw as an inverse relationship between the quantity of books available to the public and their quality and reliability. This would turn out to be an inevitable consequence of the general population’s rapidly growing accessibility to reading and writing.

The wealth of publicly accessible information since then has been compounded a thousand times over. The digital age and the emergence of truly revolutionary technologies like social media and email has put tremendous power into the hands of the everyday consumer. The world is interconnected in ways it has never been before and information flows instantaneously across a global community of over 3 billion people at the press of a button. On one hand, this level of power can and has been used for the collective good of mankind. The open channels of the internet grants enhanced freedoms of speech and expression, offering a platform to those previously silenced by oppressive governments. Entertainers and businesses now have more ways to reach customers than ever before. Restrictive barriers and obstacles have been broken with the accessibility of valuable knowledge, allowing for anyone to seek out any information they wish to know through search engine queries. It is said that we live in a time where information is so accessible and abundant that all you need is an internet connection to quite literally learn anything you want. The collective sum of human knowledge can be accessed at our fingertips, available to anyone with a desire to be in the know.

The long list of benefits brought by unfathomable levels of interconnectedness, however, only tells a fraction of the whole story. Take a moment to consider the consequences faced by those living through the information age; the constant, uninterrupted exposure to excessive quantities of information has placed new and profound burdens on our society. One topic frequently mentioned in discussions relating to the consequences of information overload is that of the dwindling human attention span, an unfortunate adaptation to the unprecedented speed in which new information is presented and consumed. Anecdotes from educators and scholars alike seem to fall under the unanimous consensus that today’s generation, those born and raised with technology in the palm of their hands, suffers from a shorter attention span, an impaired ability to concentrate, and is generally more prone to distractions than ever before. These alarming sentiments are largely supported by recent data that shows that the human brain has a static upper bound to the amount of information it can take in while the amount of information we are exposed to has increased exponentially, creating a deficit in mental resources to allocate for the individual task at hand.[1]

In practice, we are seeing dramatic, sweeping changes across a broad spectrum that reflect the changes in our day-to-day lifestyle. Trending topics on social media rise and fade faster than ever before, with Twitter hashtags remaining in the top 50 for an average of 17.5 hours in 2013 compared to a stagnant drop to 11.9 just three years later. As web-based communities continue to grow, the amount of information and data made public follows suit, resulting in less time and resources we can devote for individual pieces of media and a faster turn-around time for new content to be published. With so much information flying out the door, quality control tends to go along with it as it becomes highly impractical and sometimes impossible to monitor what types of media we are exposed to. We’re already beginning to see the consequences of this with the modern epidemic of fake news in the media, a rapidly growing problem caused by disreputable sources that misinform the public for malicious purposes. There is a tragic irony in the fact that more information is within the public’s reach than ever before, but when merged into an indistinguishable sea of facts without rhyme or reason, it blurs the line between truth and fiction, atomizes communities into single individuals, and breaks apart the very bonds it was meant to build.

The dangers of information overload extends beyond a mere rise in the use of sensationalist and clickbait tactics in the media, for there is often a malicious ambition that lies behind such practices. In practice we have seen large corporations use this phenomenon to their advantage, publishing falsified information and data disguised as news to misinform the public on key issues that surround the world today. One historical instance of an abuse of power to misinform the public is the tobacco industry’s notorious campaign and marketing efforts that diffused health concerns of smoking for decades.[2] Existing medical evidence against tobacco consumption at the time was suppressed through various tactics employed by the industry, a classic example of how systemic corruption can be used to misguide and prevent the public from obtaining the truth in a sea of lies. Arguments that such an extent of corruption and mass manipulation are made impossible by the interconnectivity of today’s technology are quickly dismantled when we closely analyze modern society. In the past decade, the topic of climate change has become one of tremendous controversy for similar reasons. Despite a growing body of evidence supporting the notion of anthropogenic global warming, there has been tremendous resistance from industry and enterprise that has made great investments to dampen reform efforts and portray opposing claims as fear mongering tactics. With a wealth of contradictory information at the forefront of today’s media, it becomes increasingly difficult for the average consumer to become well informed. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is another precedent of how is duplicitous reporting can be used to misguide the public sphere - our technology and interconnectivity has allowed for the formation of a “disinformation campaign” through social media, designed to spread news that misinforms and thwarts the public’s attention from the issue at hand.[3] In these past few weeks alone, we’ve witnessed third parties hijack an ongoing crisis with the intent to spread misinformation on a global scale, contributing to mass hysteria, delayed proper public response, and the further alienation of communities. By presenting the masses with a fortitude of information poised as the truth, companies, corporations, and elite entities are able to distract, disarm, and blind the public eye, allowing for malicious ambitions to be fulfilled and atrocities to go unpunished.

These are issues deeply ingrained in the fabric of our world, aggravated by the technology and advances of the digital era. Our capitalistic world is a fast-paced enterprise where speed, productivity, and efficiency are of utmost priority. It has proven to stimulate economic growth and has ushered in an era of tremendous progress where innovation always seems to be around the corner. And yet, it has also been shown to be one-dimensional, limited and narrow in its views, and prioritizes growth and consumption to a degree where the health of society is determined entirely by the health of the economy without consideration for the ethical or moral consequences that result.[4] The innovations and revelations brought upon by the information era have turned out to be greatly profitable, but at what cost? The repercussions of our society’s values and choices are clear as day - our ability to make proper sense of the world has diminished from the overload of information being emitted on a daily basis as media outlets are polluted with lies that misinform and brainwash the public, a choice that we know comes with grave consequences. It is clear that our society places the wellbeing of the everyday people behind the monetary interests of corporations and industry by granting them unprecedented levels of control over the media.

This systemic problem is of a global scale and is not one that can be fixed without significant re-evaluation and realignment of our priorities, principles, and collective interests. As people of a democratic society, we have the right to demand that the media informs and educates its citizens to the best of its ability without the influence of paid propaganda or filters that serve corporate interests. Our politicians and political leaders should serve to protect the interests of the people by designing policies that enforce responsible and honest newscasting. The truth is that the status quo stands in stark contrast with this democratic vision - the media has been allowed to operate without restriction or limitation, which has contributed to the unique dilemma that we face today. In order to promote the democratic principles of honesty and dependability in the media, we must first come to recognize the capitalist ideologies that dominate today’s economy as an obstacle rather than a solution. Political scientist Noam Chomsky identifies the noeliberal state as the chief cause behind many of the world’s greatest challenges yet, including unprecedented wealth inequality, the absence of true democracy, and the expansive control of the elite class.[5] The largest social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat have perpetuated the epidemic of fake news and mass manipulation by turning a blind eye and taking little to no action to curb the ongoing crisis, prioritizing stockholders, internet traffic, and company profits over the collective prosperity and wellbeing of the common people. What is especially troubling in this situation is that our capitalist society is designed from the ground up to encourage this type of behavior by permitting unrestricted growth, prioritizing profit maximization, and omitting morality and ethics from the equation entirely. This understanding highlights the very reason that our media has become as corrupt as it is today: allowing for the uncontained spread of misinformation has proven to be more profitable than responsible and honest reporting and is therefore the more logical course of action in an environment that exclusively considers monetary value and virtually nothing else. To put it succinctly, we cannot possibly foster a system that rewards and defines greedy, irresponsible behavior as “success” and expect anything other than greedy, irresponsible behavior from those at the top of society.

In these times of great despair and grief, one might consider looking to past historical struggles for ethical guidance. As it turns out, the power dynamics of our situation closely mirrors that of the Civil Rights Movement. This was a time not unlike ours today where the question of how new and revolutionary technologies with the power to change the face of humanity were being used. Social activist Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that this power alone would not benefit the human race without the spiritual and moral framework to guide it.[6] He recognized that the technology of time was sufficient to provide the bare necessities and beyond for all, and that existing poverty, starvation, inequality, and human suffering could only exist because of “a deficit in human will”. King’s proposal to solve the global crisis and bring the people back together involved a realization that we are all interdependent on one another, that the world has become a community of people from all around the world and cannot continue without our united cooperation. Separation of people through class and hierarchy will never change the fact that all people are woven together in the fabric of humanity, and that a healthy community cannot be achieved when one end is impoverished while the other prospers.

The ethical principles proposed by King have stood the test of time and can guide us in our predicament today. We are in the midst of a crisis where technology of tremendous power is used to manipulate, deceive, and restrict the ability of the common people to think critically and make sense of the world. As King noted, this type of conduct demonstrates the consequence of when technological progress outpaces our moral prowess. As those in power choose to sit idly and allow the situation to spiral out of control, the burden of responsibility falls upon the common people to act accordingly if we are to overcome the obstacles of today. On a personal level, this means that we must practice and exercise discretion in the way we sort and absorb information. We should use our power to support honest and transparent journalism that prioritizes informing the public over profiteering via controversy and contention. The goal should always be to look deeply into the many avenues of the media and recognize their objectives, motivations, and intentions. As truth and myth grow increasingly inseparable, our best hope to remain “in the know” is to utilize our ability as critical thinkers and consciously consider how we act and consume in the digital world. Our education system can play a role in this transformative process by offering courses in digital literacy to people of all ages, providing them with extensive training on how to evaluate the reliability, validity, and possible ulterior motives of online media. Such programs should be integrated into standardized education and subsidized by the government to maximize availability and accessibility. As we know through the teachings of King, it is in the nation’s best interest to keep the general public educated and well informed - a healthy, stable government begins and ends with the wellbeing of the common people.

This is a problem of tremendous scale that should be of great concern to all citizens of the world. The primary stream of information for a growing number of people worldwide that holds the power to educate and liberate has been polluted from parties with ulterior motives, casting doubt, fear, confusion, and hatred on a global scale. Misinformation is rampant and unity is dichotomized, but the silver lining of the situation remains in the fact that we are not powerless to the forces that bind us. We each have the capacity to think critically and through our collective effort, we can harness the power of technology to see through the noise and make clearer sense of the world.

Footnotes

[1] “Abundance of Information Narrows Our Collective Attention Span.” EurekAlert!, Technical University of Denmark, 15 Apr. 2019, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/tuod-aoi041119.php.

[2] Brandt, Allan M. “Inventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Jan. 2012.

[3] Glenza, Jessica. “Coronavirus: US Says Russia behind Disinformation Campaign.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 22 Feb. 2020.

[4] Monbiot, George. “Neoliberalism – the Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Apr. 2016.

[5] Chomsky, Noam, Requiem for the American Dream, 2015.

[6] King Jr., Martin Luther, The World House, 1967.