Americans have become overly reliant on others doing our work for us. In our domestic duties we have Rumbas so we don’t have to sweep and dishwashers so we don’t have to wash a dish. Then we have people that prepare our food for us and have Doordash deliver it to our doorstep. We have innovated and innovated until we barely have to do anything for ourselves anymore — and this includes forming opinions. We don’t need to do research and read to form an opinion because the media will do it for us.
STRENGTHEN YOUR POSITION IN THE INFORMATION CHAIN
Back in the 80’s, we’d have slumber parties and play slumber party games. One of these games was called “Telephone.” It’s often used as an icebreaker and for object lessons. If you’re not familiar with it, it goes something like this — everyone gets in a line and one person begins by whispering a phrase into the ear of the person next to them. As people turn and pass the information down the line, problems in communication inevitably arise. People would whisper too quietly. Or people would laugh and forget parts of the phrase. And if forgotten they’d fill in the blanks with their best guess. Occasionally, you’d get a guy who purposely tried to mess it up. By the time the last person received the message they had to say it out loud for everyone to hear. The phrase “Jenny went to the store last night and bought a little stuffed weasel that she used to decorate her chicken coop so her chickens wouldn’t poop” would turn into something like “Jimmy went to the store and bought stuff so that her chickens could make decorations from poop.”
ROLES IN THE INFORMATION CHAIN
Even small misconceptions or misinterpretations that occur when the message is transmitted can end up making a huge difference in terms of the accuracy of the message. As information is shared across social media we need to acknowledge that there has probably been some loss of accuracy by the time we read it. And the farther down the line you are from the source of the facts, the greater the chances that your information is compromised. Whenever you read an article on social media you’re at least behind the following people in the “telephone” line:
1. The author of the facts. Because we don’t have a laboratory in our house nor the knowledge necessary to perform certain tests, we often have to rely on experts. When they publish their findings in scientific journals there is only one person that separate us from the original data — the author. We have to rely on them to be honest about their findings and trust that they didn’t make any errors. But this is the best case scenario unless you’re able to design and conduct your own scientific studies. When you have your own personal anecdotal experience based on your own observations and tests (i.e. perfecting the amount of salt to put in a marinara sauce) you become your own authority and don’t need to rely on anyone else.
2. The research assistant reads the report and condenses the facts for the news media or cable commentator. This unfortunate soul has to spend hours and hours poring over literally the most boring sentences ever. These can be anything from court rulings, scientific reports, congressional bills, government transcripts, etc. After hours of this, they pick the facts they think are most interesting to the target audience or what the commentator would find most relevant.
3. The commentator has wide discretion on how they want to present the report that was written by the author and condensed and culled by the research assistant and possibly given to an editor for more editing. This means you are now the 3rd or 4th person in line to receive the message.
4. You are here. And by the time the information finally gets to you, the message has mutated into something like this: ““Due to policies of the [insert political opponent here] Jenny was forced to shop at a store that didn’t recognize her rights to decorate her chicken coop.” Aagin, even the smallest misinterpretations or omissions that occur when the message is transmitted can end up making a huge difference in terms of the accuracy of the message.
BE THE FIRST IN LINE IN THE INFORMATION CHAIN
We have come to have an unhealthy reliance on the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, this also extends to our opinions. In the early days, before Facebook and Google, you’d have an opinion about how much oil to put in your car based on driving it. You’d have an opinion based on how to grow your garden based on years of working in it. You’d have an opinion on what work boots you liked from years of wearing yours. And you’d have an opinion on the best way to potty train your fourth child based on trial and error from the first three. YOU were your very own primary source. Therefore, you were first in line.
We have come to have an unhealthy reliance for the path of least resistance. And this extends to how we form our opinions.
Before our smartphones did everything for us, we used to have to memorize any phone number we used. I probably knew a dozen phone numbers when I was in high school. Today we don’t have to know a single one by memory. We also don’t need to retain much of what we learn because at any moment we can find it online. Why waste important brain space memorizing the states and capitals when you can easily find the answer by asking Siri or Alexa? The same can be said for multiplication tables, metric conversions, and literally everything else we need to know. We’ve given the media permission to create our opinions for us in much the same way. We stopped worrying about storing factual knowledge to support our opinions because we knew we could rely on them to do it for us. Whatever the topic, we can always find a media source that will confirm what we already believed. And now, just like if you were asked to recite your friend’s phone number, your brain lacks the muscle to deliver.
SPIN + OPINION = “SPINION”
Have you ever seen a scientific journal go viral? How about a full Supreme Court opinion? I’m no talking about a summary of the court’s points, I mean the original opinion that’s often more than 100 pages and offers concurring and dissenting views. Or how about the language in a bill that Congress is proposing? The answer is NEVER. What you’ve seen tear through your social media feeds are the simplified versions created by the media. Or foreign propaganda. Or Qanon posts. Memes, videos and articles usually go viral BECAUSE they are inflammatory and controversial. They are the glamorized and spiced up dishes of opinion served to social media to satisfy a hunger that never goes away. In fact the more “spinion” you eat the hungrier you get. If you see an article that has gone viral there’s 100% chance it’s spinion. Simple, boring facts simply don’t make headlines. They need a little help.
HOW THE MEDIA MAKES HEADLINES
(Fictional scenario)
CNN, FOX News, Breitbart News and MSNBC all have fact checkers, investigative journalists and content writers for their shows. They all get a hold of a bill that is soon to be signed by the president. These bills are super dense and most research assistants don’t read them word for word. And many commentators never read a word of the bills either but simply rely on a dumbed-down version given to them by their research team. Here are the facts of the bill:
- Republicans add 15 million dollars to be spent on improvements to Texas military base.
- Democrats add 16 million to be spent on educational services for the disabled.
- Republicans add 12 million to aid former veterans.
- Democrats add 12 million to clean up water in Flint, Michigan.
And after reading the above facts, here are the headlines the news outlets produced:
“Fiscally Irresponsible Democrats Continue to Increase National Debt.”
The first headline is produced because the Democrats spent 28 million and the Republicans spent 27 million. To that news network, this means that the Republicans were acting fiscally responsible while the Democrats were acting irresponsibly.
“Republican Spending Prioritizes Military Embellishments Over Disabled Students.”
This is incredibly misleading. Just because Republicans included money for repairing a base doesn’t mean they don’t want to help the disabled. They might have seen that the Democrats had already allotted some funds for them. They also may have voted to increase spending for disabled students in previous bills.
“Democrats Politicize Flint Water Issue in Efforts to Flip Michigan in November.”
Here, because Democrats put money into the bill for Flint water clean up, the media has attempted to impune the Democrat’s motives instead of the effect the funds would have on the cleanup. This is a great way to take something that would be a positive act and make it seem objectionable.
“Republican Funding of Veteran’s Services Woefully Inadequate.”
How do we know if it’s inadequate? What if in the previous bill they’d earmarked money for veterans and also plan to in the next bill? What if they were trying to operate according to a budget? This is the same strategy as above. Instead of celebrating a positive outcome, they condemn the motive and spin the actual facts.
The headlines above are based on the opinions generated by the various media research teams. Are they wrong? Not technically. After seeing the facts upon which the headlines were based it is likely that you probably didn’t come to the same conclusions — and certainly wouldn’t have spun them into such a misleading headline. That’s because you got to the facts BEFORE the media had a chance to spin it. You weren’t relying on someone else to analyze the facts and hand you your opinion, you were analyzing facts and forming your own.
RESIST THE URGE TO REGURGITATE
Instead of using Google to search for opinions to confirm your existing opinions, use it to find primary sources of facts. Most of us are lazy and would rather copy and paste or link an article about someone else’s thoughts than take the time to create our own. They probably said exactly what you were thinking so why go through all the trouble and fact finding when they’ve already done the work for you. The less research you do the worse you get at it. You might eventually be reliant on the media for all your opinions.
The only person who is really establishing their opinion based on the facts is the person preparing the spinions for us to consume. What if all of us actually took the time to read the primary source material. It might be that instead of parroting one person’s interpretation of the facts we’d have hundreds of thousands of unique interpretations and perspectives. This adds our voice and expands the conversation. Parroting a single opinion source reduces it.
There is no excuse for us not to do our own homework. So much knowledge is at your fingertips. You can find information about what was contained in a bill, you can read clinical trials and results of medicines and medical procedures, you can obtain transcripts of congressional hearings and budget proposals, you can access case law and Supreme Court rulings. You don’t have to rely on the media.
CONGRESS’ ACTIVITIES AND BILLS
Want to know more about what Congressional leaders are putting in their bills? Go to GOVTRACK.
SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND TRIALS
Have an interest in scientific studies and trials? Here is a VAST LIST provided by Wikipedia. Once you select the the topic and the journal, it will take you to the journal’s page on Wikipedia. To access the journal’s homepage for their articles, head to the right side and browse down the box until you find “Links: Journal Homepage.”
SUPREME COURT RULINGS
Interested to know what the law is? The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The job of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution. Staying up to speed on Supreme Court rulings will help you understand what the current interpretation of the Constitution is and will help you understand your rights. It will also help you understand what standards the government needs to meet in order to infringe upon any of these rights.
The Supreme Court has its own website where it publishes opinions. You can find it HERE.
If you don’t understand what a “control group” is or its importance in a study or certain terminology when you read a bill or article, Google the term and educate yourself. Sooner or later you’ll have this information stored and you’ll be increasing the size of your mind muscle.
Don’t be the last person in the online information chain. Empower yourself by researching and understanding the facts before the media get a hold of them. Let’s stop regurgitating other people’s opinions and let’s start sharing our own based on our own research from primary sources. Only then will we have a more educated and knowledgeable discussion on social media — one that might actually serve to facilitate ideas and produce solutions.