One of the problems with the internet, i believe, is that there's so much stuff going on that people always get a "sense of urgency" to post or say something, before a million other messages come trough and your post is lost in the noisePosted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
The internet has drastically altered the information interchange on the entire planet. Anything and everything can be found on the internet. Every point of view and every area of interest are represented. Some are distasteful, some are evil, some are intention lies, and some make incorrect associations. Regardless of the fact that many misrepresentations exist among the nuggets of pertinent data, a discerning reader can make great headway toward edification in countless disciplines.
It truly is a marvel.
But in certain specific instances, we are told, we are not equipped to make our own decisions and therefore misinformation becomes dangerous to us. We must be shielded from this dangerous misinformation ever being placed before our eyes as it might corrupt and radicalize us. Ultimately, the authorities proclaim, our incorrect decisions could kill us, based on the lethal ideation caused by our puny brains being incapable of sorting out the conflicting data.
And if they don't act on behalf of our misguided selves, we would be in danger of becoming domestic terrorists by the very act of spreading the 'misinformation' further.
For example, i have joined a few channels on Telegram, sometimes someone posts something important, and i start thinking about it, then want to say something and return to the app to post, and there are 9000 messages already! and the conversation has gone so far offtopic that it doesn't matter what i wanted to say, it's completely lost in the noise and people ignore it because now they are talking about a related topic, but not the original one i wanted to discuss
The sense of urgency around posting something to get your voice heard before the noise comes, causes a lot of people to just share or post stuff without even thinking about it more than 10 seconds, because you lose your chance to speak up, so a lot of people just share without verifying or double checking anything, then they just can't go back and edit or clarify, because *no one will read the clarification*. So their post ends up becoming part of the problem, it then starts being shared if people liked it, in the same way, with a sense of urgency to be the first one to share it and claim some *internet street points*
This happens everywhere, on Reddit, Facebook and other sites like VK and Twitter, The way those sites work actually pushes you to think and act like that. And conversations last for just a day or two tops, if you did not say anything on that time frame, don't even bother, it died already so find the next conversation. It's like an hyperactive brain at full speed
Oh and a side effect is that "the truth" sometimes becomes whatever was said on the post with more likes or the most shared one, and since there's so much stuff going on, people just look for it and read or watch and accept it as the truth, because so many people liked it so it can't be wrong, right? There's no time to research it or think deeply about it, there are other posts to comment or participate on. That's how the brain is wired on social media