It All Boils Down To You. Does It Deserve Your Attention?

Information is undoubtedly one of the most powerful resources in the world. Even then, when information is misconstrued, it can be a hurdle to development. When we dial back to what information really means, we see that information is truly the raw data that can help people make decisions. It automatically goes that there is a direct connection between information and decision making. To state the obvious, information has become easier to get and disperse due to intelligent technology.

This is an advantage when ethics are considered and an avid disadvantage when information is in the wrong hands. One of the troubling pieces of information that I have encountered to this day is the false death of Rowan Atkinson, AKA Mr. Bean.  Who would want to kill the millennial childhood hero through the keyboard? Imagine waking up one day only to find out that you are actually dead in a cony headline:

“It is with much grief that we announce Jane Doe’s Death after Being Involved in a Grizzly Accident.”

Such would cause agony to friends and other mental health challenges to state the least. 

Information as the bulk of communication can be very powerful in this sense. Now that we are in the middle of the worst 21th-century pandemic, wrong information can easily cause panic and rush decision making. Ethical standards in many online sites are not strictly considered, which explains why there are many false information sources still on the internet. However, before we start pointing fingers, we have to analyze ourselves and verify whether we are part of the problem. How many times have we disregarded the measures laid out by the government? What conversations are we having with friends that could be misleading? 

Now that we have our answers, let’s continue 

Covid-19 has many un-answered questions which make the perfect loophole for a person seeking to spread wrong information on the internet. The irony of the internet is that information and disinformation sources act like winy babies fighting for a parent’s attention. You and I being the parent in case that wasn’t in the open. It is exhausting to think that for every truthful piece of information disseminated, there are dozens of wrong information circulating in the same manner. That leaves us with the burden to determine which sources are worthy of our attention. 

 Yes. You and I have to choose which whiny baby we pick up. 

Luckily, we have a strategy to determine which way to go.  By finding answers to these three questions, we will definitely know which sources of information to trust:

1. Who is the source?

1. How credible is the source?

2. Is the claim verifiable?

When we make it a habit to find out the answers to these questions before reposting and tagging all our friends, we will eventually sieve the unwanted information that often clouds our judgment.  We will truly and significantly impact the communities that we form online. Slowly but steadily, we will learn to protect ourselves and be ambassadors of a noble course. Leadership starts with you. 

Dig deeper; don’t be fooled by chubby cheeks.

By Caroline Wanjiku Kamau

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