3 reminders for the next time you’re doomscrolling
The U.S. is embroiled in perhaps the most dire misinformation crisis ever. Our leaders don’t care about truth, nor does the media. However, that doesn’t mean that truthful, helpful information isn’t out there, we just need to be a bit more vigilant in sifting through all the bullshit to find it. Reliance on unverified sources for news and current events is higher than ever, and it appears the general public is less adept than ever at being able to tell fact from fiction. Here are a few questions to ask yourself next time you’re scrolling:
Who the hell are you?
We used to consume information from a fixed variety of sources - friends, family, the news, teachers, books - now? Any stranger can be spewing any information on the internet and frame it as fact. Those strangers are also now our biggest sources of information. We are scrolling on social media more than ever and algorithms are increasingly adept at showing content that is unrelated to our friends but that might still engage us. Consequently, the way we consume information is akin to someone coming up to you on the street, and telling you some random information. That’s essentially what scrolling TikTok is like. In real life, you would tell a stranger to fuck off not believe every word they say. So why is social media different?
On the one hand - crowdsourcing information can be useful. I have definitely used many a Reddit thread for small questions but you always take this information with a grain of salt. At the end of the day - you don’t know the people you are getting this information from and they don’t necessarily have any incentive to be truthful. Finally, it simply comes down to the fact that not everyone’s take is good, important, or true. If someone is trying to present information to you as fact - take a look at their page - are they qualified to have an opinion on this topic? What reason do you have to trust them?
Is this an ad?
So many posts these days are ads - both obvious and nefariously subtle. It’s always important to ask yourself if this content is selling you something. Knowing that just by virtue of selling something, a person has an incentive to present a certain way which can immediately be misleading. Ads are tricky because it doesn’t necessarily mean the content is useless, but it is a huge flag to take caution because at the end of the day, the point of the content is purely to sell.
Who benefits from my reaction to this?
If something makes you mad or interested - ask yourself who benefits from your engagement. Remember that algorithms feed on engagement - clicks, seconds watched, comments, anything. So the things that become popular are not popular because they are good or true, but because they incite engagement. This structure has incentivized increasing amounts of sensationalism and concepts such as rage bait . It irritates me to no end that people are aware of this trend and yet STILL engage with content that is clearly only created to make people angry. We continue to make horrible people popular simply because we won’t stop engaging with their posts. Regardless if those people are worthy, they end up with money and a platform with which to become even more harmful. So next time you see something that incites a powerful emotion - ask yourself who this emotion will ultimately benefit and if you want to support that.
BONUS: learn how to interpret statistics*. People use statistics to tell certain stories all the time. Common things to look out for -
% have two sides. If someone says 50% of people do one thing, that means 50% of people also don’t do it. Remember to always flip it to really see what story they’re trying to tell.
Study sources. Lot’s of people like to cite studies but if you plan to ingest that study as fact, you should always look up who funded the study. Studies funded by companies tend to find favorable results for that company - crazy huh?
Pay attention to sample sizes. If someone cites a stat from a study with a small sample size you can basically write it off as conjecture.
Lastly - say it with me - correlation is not causation. This is especially true of studies that deal in nuanced topics such as health. For example studies come out all the time about how a singular habit can contribute to good or bad health but health is dependent on many factors. So although two things can be correlated, they are not necessarily causal.
At the end of the day - you should be able to quickly assess why someone might be sharing something and how that affects what they are saying. From there, you’ll be able to know exactly how much of it to pay attention to or to simply scroll past - and in this day and age, I would argue this is a necessary skill to deal with the deluge of information we are exposed to and stay sane.
*Extra reading: How to Lie with Statistics - a super short book that I honestly think should be required reading for the whole world. It quickly teaches you how easy statistics are to manipulate and all the different ways you can use them to tell stories rather than convey straightforward fact.
March ‘25 Consumption Report
I’ve developed the following rating system, it’s half Michelin inspired and half of my own making.
5/5 - go out of your way to consume this, it is incredible, we will have endless discussions if you do. I’m obsessed.
4/5 - It is good. If you pick it up, I bet you won’t be disappointed
3/5 - Take it or leave it. It didn’t offend nor impress me.
2/5 - It maybe has a couple redeemable qualities. Would not consume it knowing what I know now.
1/5 - Avoid at all costs. Go out of your way to avoid it.
Here are March’s ratings: A surprisingly small amount for this month for being unemployed for most of it…
Books
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (3/5)
The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada (3/5)
Movies - a very James Bond focused Month
Diamonds are Forever (3/5)
Erin Brockovich (4/5)
Singin’ In The Rain (4/5)
Live and let Die (3/5)
The Man With The Golden Gun (4/5)
The Spy Who Loved Me (3/5)
Moonraker (3/5)
Octopussy (3/5)
TV Shows
Solo Leveling S2 4/5
Severance S2 5/5
Apothecary Diaries S2 (in progress) 5/5
White Lotus S3 (4/5)
Adolescence (5/5)
The Morning Show S3 (4/5)
