QOTD 42: Upvote my ass.

Hola Otters, apologies for yesterday’s QOTD having only a tangential relationship with reality. Speaking of reality, I made the unfortunate choice of taking a gander at CNN’s comments section today, and found myself wholly disappointed in the kinds of drivel people will write on pretty much any article.

Thus:


Do you fear for humanity since the dawn of the internet’s – reply first, read later, age? How do you get your news? Where do you go to fact check?

I do fear for the kinds of people we’re going to be in the future – eager to believe we are right no matter what, eager to say the edgy thing to get the most up votes or spark the most outcry. It really bums me out that we have taken this wonderful ability to communicate with people across the world, and essentially made it a platform to argue with one-another without much in the way of research or quality arguments.

Take for example how most people get their news these days.

<Something Happens>
<Reporter gets information on the thing that happened>
<Reporter condenses information into an article>
<Article is posted>
<Article is shared on twitter or facebook>
<Few people read the whole article>

By the time the information because publicly available and part of our psyches, it’s been diluted almost half a dozen times. There is no primary source anymore. People don’t read the text of a speech by President Obama, they’ll listen to what other people have to say about the speech, then listen to what people had to say about what the other people had to say, about the speech. While it’s not hard to seek out the primary source and make your own assumptions,  it’s far easier to read (some of) what someone wrote about it, and then take that take-away as fact.

I dunno, it just bugged me. The article that bummed me out can be found here: Police: Slain Nevada teachers’ heroism bought time for students to flee

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Blog Otter Award: We’re going extra textual for this one and awarding the award to Andy PG, who I believe wrote his Raw Review on a speak and spell following technical difficulties. We appreciate the effort, sir!