By Marcus Brown
With the recent passing of Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro, it would not be difficult to find any one of a thousand think pieces and hot takes regarding his life and contributions both positive and negative for the Cuban people. Because of the prevalence of social media and constant streams of media across a variety of outlets and media, it is possible to find oneself drowning in oversaturated echo chambers of discourse that ultimately prove contradictory to the intention of informing the masses.
For this reason a mentality of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” becomes applicable to the decision of voicing one’s opinions or giving unnecessary clout to unreliable platforms of news, media, or public dialogue.
We are blessed to live in a country in which freedom of speech and protection of the press are given a priority not seen in other countries, but that does not mean these privileges come without a responsibility. As we have seen with this election’s outcome, there are consequences to circulating false news stories. Even when the stakes are not so high, there is still a potential for misuse and abuse. The argument can be made that people are entitled to their opinions, even if those opinions are categorically false. It almost appears plausible to say that there is no inherent danger to harboring ill-conceived notions if they do not culminate in action. However, that is simply not the case.
There is no such thing as an innocuous idea when it has been expressed to a larger audience, because any transmission of ideas has the potential to bolster or alter another person’s perspective and ideology. Furthermore, it can become a two-part problem when one takes into account the legitimate platforms that are deafened and minimized at the expense of platforms commandeered to express disingenuous thoughts and ideas.
Often, those speaking the loudest have the least to say. Even if one makes a concerted effort not to engage with detrimental information, doing so also reduces one’s ability to listen to positive and truly informative information.
Even in the digital world where the vast amounts of information, both helpful and not as helpful, can feel ephemeral and by extension harmless, there are repercussions for every instance in which one imposes their ideas on the outside world. The internet may not be a finite resource, but our ability to sift through the myriad of conflicting ideas is.
On an individual level, only so much information can be absorbed and analyzed in a productive manner before overstimulation occurs, and an inverse effect comes about from trying to obtain as much information as possible.
Social media and the evolution of news media have contributed greatly to the free flow of information we enjoy today, but it would not hurt to keep in mind that too much of anything will prove to be harmful in the end. Information is of no exception.