#just random rambles
The internet has given us so much, but it’s also taken so much. It’s the reason we have the world at our fingertips, but at the same time it’s isolating us into our own bubble of reassurance while it sustains itself by feeding us content it knows aligns with what we already believe in.
Being passionate about something is fine, but it doesn’t mean you should only surround yourself with the like-minded regurgitated information you already have just so you can drown out the voices of those who believe something different. The internet has allowed the creation of a world that values who is saying something rather than the validity of what is being said.
Intelligence is not simply knowledge, it’s understanding, and in order to understand something, you need to hear alternative viewpoints from both sides and not just the one you’re already on. But… hearing an alternative viewpoint comes with the chance you may actually be wrong, the chance that your understanding of something may not be as complete as you thought.
And that’s okay. You’re allowed to change your mind based on a new understanding, but we live in an age where the internet won’t automatically show you information from both sides to give you the option to do so.
Back in the day, printed newspapers didn’t have an algorithm that catered content to your interests based on your browsing history. Magazines didn’t monitor the articles you read to show you advertisements about the things you like. The media company made money when you purchased the newspaper or magazine. Due to this, there was no financial risk by presenting both sides of a story, but it was still presented in its entirety without being filtered and changed so it aligned with what side you’re already on.
The internet is now a media giant, studying you to learn what you like, so now a company’s financial success relies on algorithms to filter content to show you things you want to see in order to keep you engaged and on their website. This only reinforces the idea that what you think is right has always been right and everyone else is wrong, keeping you inside your bubble of ignorance.
We love to consume the things we love and the internet knows this.
Why do you think there are so many people arguing about who is right and who is wrong when each side has a different half of the same book? The internet should be a catalyst for understanding, but instead it only gives both sides the same information they already know from their half of the book. There can be no understanding and peace until both halves come together to give us the full story, but the internet knows there is no money in peace.
What has unified us as a world has divided us as a people, and it’s time to reassemble the book and read it… together.
