(THINK BLACK) Nonstop Information Wars: Are You In The Alternative Reality Zone?
The challenges continue to mount and the nonstop information wars rage on increasingly more intense…virtue signaling, triangulation, misinformation, diversion, masking, projection. Have you ever heard that old saying “believe half of what you see; none of what you hear”, especially at a time of conflict or crisis?
Certainly, you’ve heard “never let a good crisis go to waste”? What a churn we face every day having been sucked into the internet spun dimension. You thought you were just going on the web to check your favorite tweet stream, website, or Facebook page and ended up in the alternative reality zone.
Is this our fate now, always trying to distinguish reality from the “Meta World”? If we or others around us let our guards down do we become victims of a scam, an investment scam to raid our finances, identity theft, intellectual theft. But the light at the end of the tunnel is NOT a train, it is daylight from the other side.
I know it sounds overly optimistic whenever you look at your phone, email, or other media platforms, but is not only possible, it is likely. You see in many instances we project our feelings and experiences onto others so that we think they are feeling, fearing, and fighting for those things that we are focused on.
Who are we, exceptional or middle of the pack regarding our personal agendas and goals? We all have those inner feelings whether they are fully expressed or widely publicized on the internet. Our salvation may be the “rest of us”, “others”, “you people” those who don’t have the latest apps, the next generation phone, the autonomous vehicle, follow on Twitter, are Facebook friends, and just might be LinkedIn. As familiar as the digital world seems to us there are others who live primarily in the real world.
According to recent surveys, seventy-five percent (75%) of Americans never tweet. That means they are likely relying on other information platforms from a traditional network cable, streaming services or heaven forbid, print media. So although many have thousands and millions of Twitter followers they aren’t reaching 75% of the audience that way and have to use other methods. Makes you wonder how important the number of Twitter followers an individual has is if they are really only getting one-fourth (1/4) of the public. Who are those absent from Twitter getting their content and information?
Well in January of this year 2022 surveys were taken to measure weeknight viewing and determine the average number of viewers for popular news programming and the results may surprise you. It certainly would surprise you if you thought like I did, that my experience and habits were commonplace or average.
According to the surveys, one percent (1%) or 2.2 Million of American adults watched primetime Fox News (2.2 Million). Interestingly enough one-half percent (0.5%) or 1.5 Million of American adults tuned in to MSNBC. Many lessons can be taken from these figures.
Maybe more influencers and super spreader social media individuals are sending these messages and information out. Where do you fit in this information flow? Are you getting the information from a source and just passing it on to your networks without hesitation? More importantly, are you getting information from those who profess to have secured it from a reputable information source? Man, we really have to be on guard to ensure we do not lose our ability to think and analyze using common sense. Irrespective of the questionable information, our humanity still survives in times of crisis.
Our humanity may be best seen from the fact that during the past two years of the pandemic nearly three times more Americans (56%) donated to charities than gave money to politicians and parties (21%). Some would say that was a sign of the value we still hold for our fellow man.
Some of the reasons for this may be the ease of setting up GoFundMe pages and their easy donation access from your phone or computer. You can give as soon as the urge hits you in response to a tragic or emotional media piece. This does give us hope if we know it is within us. Well, it comes back to what we know, what network are we in, how do we engage with and through media? What’s your role and what’s your goal?
Think Black columnist Attorney Larry D. Hall served as Secretary of the NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs under Gov. Roy Cooper from 2017 through January 2021. In the NC House of Representatives as the member from NC’s 29th House district (Durham), Hall served from 2006 through 2017. Secretary Hall earned a B.S. with Honors in Political Science and Business from Johnson C. Smith University and a J.D. from the School of Law at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon undergrad graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the US Marine Corps. A decorated officer, Secretary Hall served 16 years in the Marines and Marine Corps Reserves and served in the support of the Operations in the Middle East in Lebanon and Iran. He is currently the Deputy Industrial Commissioner at the NC Department of Insurance.