In the midst of one of the most chaotic times in recent history, the COVID-19 situation is already teaching us lessons, we just need to stop and look for them.
One lesson that this hysterical nightmare has taught the developed world is that there is a growing chasm between what is real information and what is fabricated or false information.
In 2019, fake news was the topic of the year in the United States, but very few people actually knew how much information was being fabricated online.
Already in 2020, COVID-19 has showed us that ugly devil is much bigger than we originally thought.
There are two sides of this ugly devil that COVID-19 is revealing to us which are the following:
One
The line between what is real information and what is false information is almost unrecognizable to the general public
Two
The amount of false information is almost as high as the amount of real information
These two realities have thrown North American life into a frenzy. We are running to get anitbacterial soap to fight a contagion that is not a bacteria. We are opting for toilet paper over critical medications that may be on short supply. Even multiple US departments had to fact check their own President’s misuse of twitter language to clear up public misinterpretation and false information.
If we are going to listen to the lesson that COVID-19 is already teaching us, this is my non-scientific prediction about what is to come.
I firmly believe that once things settle down and all the data from this frenzy is studied, it will force society into developing two forms of internet. One form of internet will be built with algorithms to only have legitimate information. It will be comparable to flying business class.
The other form of internet will be what we currently have today at it’s rapidly growing pace. It will be the economy ticket with little leg room and lots of responsibility on the user to find comfort in a crowded space.
Last year I wrote an article on Medium about what will happen when the internet outgrows its parents. About 200 people read that article. No one really cared. While I am not a scientist or a big data mogul, I wrote this piece to bring awareness to the fact that we are not prepared for what happens when it outgrows its parents.
While I do not have all the answers, COVID-19 has rushed the teenage internet into a young adult faster than we expected.
We will need to look to the thought leaders of the world to adjust rapidly so that we are ready for what this young adult will do next.
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Previously Published on Medium
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Ryan, Nice piece. I’d add that there is an interplay between the disinformation that is used to manipulate people (I recommend the book, The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth by Samuel Woolley to see what’s coming) and the internal mind-set of people to want things simple and to believe information that support your own political beliefs and worldview. We need to both improve our information flow and improve the way our minds work if we are to be successful. I write about these issues here on The Good Men Project and on my… Read more »