Cascading failure effect

2 days ago (Edited)

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Today, after linking to the publication of Taraz, I found myself thinking about a social problem that has been affecting Portuguese society more markedly in recent months.

A series of events, some of them almost insignificant, have contributed to this situation.

It all starts with someone making a statement that, although it may not even be false, contains something that is not completely true, or that has some inconsistency in its veracity. And that is the seed. From there, it just needs to find fertile soil and water.

The perfect soil for a seed of misinformation is ignorance and fear. When there is fear, or unfounded apprehension, it is very likely that anything that addresses our fear will immediately be hyper-noticed by our mind. There is no turning back. We are hardwired to detect these small triggers of fear or prejudice.

We may never have witnessed a particular event, but as we see inaccurate news being spread, either on social media or even on some instant messaging platforms, our minds immediately go into “alert” mode.

We are always trying to find reasons for things that may never even be connected. Take superstitions, for example. They exist because someone postulated that a certain event would lead to another event most likely occurring.

We all watched live what happened in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lack of information and the proximity of everyone to the threat triggered our most primitive instincts. We created rules to make us feel safer, when in fact, a few years later, it was proven that none of these rules had any beneficial or mitigating effect.

In my opinion, there were countries, such as Portugal, where the state took a more controlling stance, providing information but allowing little freedom. There were countries where these same rules did not apply, and it was later established that the number of casualties per thousand infected inhabitants was not significantly different from countries that opted for a lockdown.

Sweden can be said to have based its approach on scientific and well-founded projections. It decided to give the population the freedom to choose to lock down for themselves, rather than making it mandatory. The population realized that it was a highly infectious disease, but that it could not simply close restaurants, shops, churches, and much more, just to try to contain something that would be inevitable.

Other events that can be explained by this phenomenon are those that occur most frequently among young people. They are often associated with challenges posted on social media, in which someone performs a feat or tests their luck, and with the ease of recording and spreading images or sounds, the challenge quickly takes on enormous proportions. The “dusting challenge” involves inhaling toxic gases from aerosol cleaning products in order to get high. Unfortunately, this challenge has led to the deaths of several children aged 12 and under over the last 18 months. What could be more tragic than death from an online challenge? How can a parent of a child, who does not yet know what is right or wrong, cope after something so tragic happens?

The algorithms of social platforms and information networks also contribute to news consumption and how that news is shared.

“Echo chambers”—small groups of people who share the same opinions and beliefs—provide the perfect breeding ground for spreading news. Logically, in a noisy community, if something wasn't quite right, someone would most likely check the information and another side of the story would be presented. Then there would be an argument, and it would be taken to a point of greater or lesser concession. But what happens more often is the existence of closed groups, with very similar tastes, and almost perfectly overlapping fears and convictions. When something that is to the liking of one of the members is shared in these groups, the content is seen as true, pleasant, or even factual. There is no room for a contradictory or different idea to be shared or brought to light to counter the previous one.

All these social, political, and religious niches lead to fanaticism and an anti-democratic mentality that in no way helps humanity to evolve.

Are we on the downward curve of our evolution? Are we only trusting in a technology we call artificial, something that is so naturally human?

Are we handing down part of our legacy of thousands and thousands of years based solely on everything that has been published, written, shared, spoken, and sung? Have you noticed that nothing new emerges from technology, but only an interconnection between ideas, a connection of data that is far from being associated by us?