When I opened my computer I had a plan to do something important like pay a bill or check my emails or … Whatever, before I did that, I decided to check Facebook and I got a wee bit distracted. Post after post seemed appropriate to some of the things I’ve been thinking lately, and each one was equally brilliant. Posts of quotes from great authors from years gone by, posts of this; posts of that. They all said exactly what I’ve been thinking lately and there wasn’t a Ralph Babble quote in any of them.
I know. You don’t need to be the smartarse who tells me: It’s the algorithm…
Al Gore Rhythm…
Coincidence?
Yeah, probably… But once you’ve seen it, there’s evidence everywhere. Confirmation bias is a real thing… I know, everything I’ve seen proves it…
Confirmation bias is – just in case you haven’t come across the term, or have had it poorly defined – our tendency to see the evidence which backs our prevailing view while ignoring any contradictory information. For example, when a skateboarding teenager accidentally knocks you down, you spend the next few days complaining about the youth of today and ignore the fact that a group of teenagers helped you up, ensured that you weren’t seriously injured and walked you back to your car even though it was out of their way.
Or, imagining that Peter Dutton says something intelligent that you agree with, your confirmation bias would have you wondering for days what he was up to and who told him to say it and why he agreed to do it.
Actually, the fact that you just said that you couldn’t imagine Dutton saying anything like that is probably an even better example of confirmation bias, but I’d have trouble arguing that you didn’t have a point…
Anyway, the terrible danger of the internet is that it doesn’t allow for nuances in debate. You’ll tend to be directed down rabbit-holes of people with similar beliefs to yours because the algorithms are designed to keep you online.
You clicked on this story about how badly Meghan and Harry have been treated by the Royal Family? Well, how about we see if you’ll take the bait and read the one where Princess Di is really still alive and living happily with Michael Jackson but they live in fear because King Charlie has threatened them if the story ever leaks… No, well, what about the one where Camilla is really her twin sister? No? Mm, there’s a great story about how nobody believes anything they read on the internet anymore and… yes, that’s a great story and before you go, we have one on the gullibility epidemic and how a town in the US is introducing a law against it…
Don’t get me wrong. I think that there is still a lot that’s good about the internet and I don’t just mean the photos of cats and dogs. However, the way in which it’s being exploited by evil geniuses for money and power makes the typical Bond villain seem benevolent by comparison.
I don’t know what the solution is, apart from trying to listen to people’s stories and to show some empathy and to understand that it really doesn’t help to scream: “You voted for that psycho, you moron!” I mean, you may have a legitimate point, but stupidity is like a gaping wound; merely pointing out that a person is bleeding to death is unlikely to change the situation and it needs someone who is capable of attending to their wounds till they get better…
Of course, the problem with that analogy is that – politically speaking – some people just yell, “Look what the government has done! I’m voting for the opposition because they’ve promised to end these oppressive bandages and they’ll rip them off and let me bleed freely as God intended!”
Whatever, let’s end with some inspiring quotes:
“For every complex problem, there’s a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” H.L. Mencken
“Keep your faces towards the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you.” Walt Whitman
“Most of the quotes attributed to me were made up after my death.” Albert Einstein
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