Beyond the Black Mirror
Each of us carries a black mirror in our hands, propping it on top of the ridge permanently embedded into our pinky finger; a device designed to engage, provide ease, and distract us from the world around us. The coercion of engagement and distraction has loaded smartphone users with an excess of information requiring no prerequisite—nothing asking you to critically assess or ask questions about the information shown to you, rather a bid for your acceptance or contained and passionate disapproval.
Discourse online will suggest the auction for our attention and time began with social media. However, headlines on magazines like the National Enquirer established this practice before the inception of social platforms. They were designed to trigger an impulsive response that resulted in invested time and money. The simmering irrelevancy of sensationalized headlines has shifted platforms, but the outcome remains the same—capture an audience. Our highest value, even among ourselves, is our attention. Instagram reels and TikTok videos deliberately use inflated introductions to hook the audience and then shift the narrative.
The medium is the message
In this age of technology, we have the resources to find all the answers we inherently wonder. Yet, reading through TikTok and Instagram comments suggests resources are limited, and that curiosity is afforded to a select few while assumptions are ruled as fact. In my second year of university, Communication 101 taught me about Marshall McLuhan and his popularized concept: the medium is the message. Meaning, the platter on which the information is delivered influences our society more than the message itself. Vine, the extinct social platform, albeit a trailblazer of its time, introduced the short-form videos asking for six seconds of your time. This app had a major influence on TikTok which later reshaped other social platforms; ultimately, influencing the human condition.
An altered attention span usually doesn’t require a fact-check or a deeper understanding of the message; it’s in pursuit of the next video. Meaning is created, but when disregarded it is lost or changed. The absence of critical thinking when consuming media will continue to revolutionize language and comprehension of varying topics and their meaning. Not all media is asking their viewers to analyze and spot misinformation, instead it appreciates your hazed attention, but your grade 12 english teacher is begging you to remember the fundamentals from their class. My university professor used the example of a child’s introduction to a piano. A child’s curiosity would try to understand its function rather than simply accepting the statement, “it is a piano.” Feed that same curiosity when trusting an AI assistant, swiping through social media, or reading journalistic articles or books. Parse the language used, assess the medium, question the source and the reason you are viewing this content.
A loss of critical thinking will only perpetuate passivity and the evolution of apathy in future generations. Simply accepting that this is the way things are, gives permission to companies and unqualified experts to acquire more space in your mind and sell you more products or your data or re-write history.
Healthy skepticism and curiosity create space for conversations to penetrate through the echo chamber, stimulating the ridges in our brain rather than the man-made ridge on our pinky, and strengthen our discernment for filtering information. Ask questions. It’s an act of autonomy.