Re-education of the miseducated in the era of unfiltered information

WASHINGTON – I have found myself, even more frequently, questioning the President of the United States of America. These rhetorical questions of ‘what’ and ‘why’ come to mind nearly automated, and help shape my understanding of the ongoing global chaos. The precocious act shakes the child in me to her core, who – in the childish simulation of things – would not and could not tell apart the voice of a President from that of a person seated as President.

Education is perhaps one of the most important needs for mankind, and thanks to technology, the various ways in which teaching and learning are conducted, provide opportunities for mass education through direct or mediated online information sharing. In the face of a prevailing global pandemic in which hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, industries, and individuals tilting off balance to accommodate an obvious disruption, very powerfully positioned individuals are manifesting in ways that cast aspersions on the quality of information emanating from superior institutional corridors.

On April 23, during a White House press briefing, William Bryan, who currently leads the science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, detailed a recent DHS research on how well the coronavirus survives on nonporous surfaces in heat, humidity, and sunlight. “The virus dies the quickest in the presence of direct sunlight” he said, then added that further testing will “check disinfectants that quickly kill the virus on surfaces”.

President Trump, mounting the podium then articulated further the powers of sunlight and disinfectant on the virus; “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute… And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

Following Trump’s comments, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), reported an increase in accidental poisonings up to 121% compared to April of 2019.

Reporting for Time, Jeffery Kluger however pointed that; “Critically, association is not causation, and with a frightened public doing whatever it can to protect itself from the virus, the same increases in poisonings might have happened regardless of Trump’s remarks. But the presidential megaphone is a powerful one, and even dangerous ideas projected through it can influence an awful lot of people.”

The CDC, Toxicologists, Pulmonologists and FDA officials were amongst regulatory groups that have since appraised the President’s comments, warning against the use of bleach as a cure for COVID-19. The actual makers of Lysol also deemed it necessary to reeducate the public about the uses of its products; “We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company lamented in a statement.

It is no longer news that President Trump in his personal fight to wade off direct attacks on his presidency by the press, has coined the terms #FakeNews and #LameStreamMedia, thereby casting a cloud of doubt over the media as a reliable source of credible information.

When redressed by White House Reporters on his comments about injecting disinfectant into the lungs, including potentially inciting deadly experimentation of the vague idea, Trump responded from the Oval Office that his use of disinfectant comments was not serious. “I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen” the President said. Trump’s fake news and the backlash has since trended worldwide.

With a sarcastic President of the free world who actively campaigns for diminished trust in the media, where would the average person turn to for credible information on the prevailing pandemic?

Although the media as the fourth estate is not formally recognized as part of a political system, it exists as the fundamental medium for mass education, both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.

I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 24, 2020

This trend of spreading unconfirmed rumours, fake news and conspiracy theories are quite common online, especially via social media. It is also not limited to political gamesmanship or dark sarcasm from an educated member of the society. Some famous examples include conspiracy theories that correlate the cause and spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology, and the supposed death of North Korea’s Supreme leader Kim Jong Un which gained traction online for other highly influential reasons.

On April 25, when social media news outlet TMZ reported that Kim Jong Un had reportedly died, it posed a catchy headline; ‘NORTH KOREA DICTATOR KIM JONG-UN REPORTEDLY DEAD… After Botched Heart Surgery’. Everyone (including TMZ) knows that the phrase “reportedly died” is not credible for an obituary reportage, yet like wildfire, the news spread and made a grand entry into mainstream media where the supposed death was further analyzed. CNN interpreted satellite footage from the Supreme leaders’ Wonsan compound as media “intelligence” from North Korea, in its own reportage.

In Africa, 5G conspiracy theories emerged as Christian eschatology when Nigerian megachurch preacher, Chris Oyakhilome, made unsubstantiated claims that the Nigerian government imposed lockdown orders in Lagos and Abuja to facilitate the installation of 5G wireless technology. Speaking via LoveWorld Television, a dedicated news outlet for his church, Pastor Chris gave a detailed powerpoint presentation to his congregation on 5G technology, vaccination, and the “secret plot” to cover up a “truth” that 5G technology was primarily responsible for the deaths recorded around the globe and not COVID-19 as global media was reporting.

Pastor Chris, who holds a doctorate degree in divinity and an honorary Doctor of Science award, presides over one of the largest Christian congregations in Africa with branches across five continents. British media regulator, Office of Communications (Ofcom) has now imposed sanctions against LoveWorld Television, a move that comes long after the miseducation of the masses.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, available data online has grown exponentially and changes per second to the point that ‘breaking the internet’ is becoming less Kardashian and more plausible. Yet, online information sharing remains largely unfiltered and unregulated. Speaking on this last month, International Economist, Dambisa Moyo, made a call via Project Syndicate, where her post titled ‘A splinternet prevention plan’ details the need to set global standards and protocols on the use of data, artificial intelligence, and other features of the digital economy. “There is no international framework to facilitate policy coordination and set standards for the digital economy,” she wrote. This idea to set a global standard will perhaps prove necessary in more ways than construed, and can help transform the internet or provide the much needed ‘filtering’ of information in our new world.

Growing dependence on the internet as the primary meeting point for human socialization, births a new construct for what is deemed ‘data for the education of the masses’ and that which is ‘free thought’ or ‘individual ramblings’ uploaded online.

A few days ago in a Tweet, I asked Google if it would consider color-coding news stories to intentionally filter information uploaded online. The interconnectedness of the web is such that any random personal opinion on a subject can satisfy an inquiry entered into the renowned Google search engine on that subject. Such a relief it would be to have fake news outlined in red and that which is deemed factual, coded as black text. This thought follows existing knowledge of an algorithm that helps identify resistance values in some telecommunications cables and can be applied in a way that is supercharged to monitor, detect, and code (in short time) news stories posted online that is largely misleading, political and damaging to the education of the masses. Fact-checking is already becoming increasingly necessary and would deepen over the coming years.

As we await such an innovation, discerning truths and objectively educating ourselves in this era of unfiltered information has become more of a personal responsibility than institutional. How do we tell apart credible information from false truths? How much longer can we rely on Twitter verified badges, academic degrees, political affluence or even data-backed information for the discernment of truths? What is truth and how can we easily recognize it?

Neil deGrasse Tyson spared a thought on Twitter; “I dream of a world where truth shapes people’s politics, rather politics shaping what people think is true” he wrote. In his masterclass on Scientific thinking and Communication, the world-famous Astrophysicist is known to more broadly classify truths as; personal, political, and objective. He teaches his audience how to think and question information received every day – especially those on the internet.

An objective truth consists of that which is true “no matter what” and shapes our understanding of the universe. We cannot rely on google searches as evidence for correctness or hold on to bias without thinking through the data before us or further dissecting public information before ingesting it as personal knowledge.

Quite true, many will never be able to afford the luxury of formal education where structured learning and information organization are readily obtainable. With unevenness in the distribution of wealth and intelligence, some are closer to credible information sources than others are. The ways in which information flows from a credible source through various mediators and handed down to the masses, leave room for losses. Also, in a world where listening to respond is rampant, listening to assimilate, question, or understand is relatively scanty. We therefore, can expect the truth to be taken out of context even more frequently, and educators must develop patience, empathy, and depth to accommodate these challenges.

New World Learning and Relearning Methodologies

Information has been decentralized and internalized by individuals online. Such open-source access fills existing gaps in the area of mass education, but diminished trust in the quality of information shared online also creates a new chasm; it is difficult to distinguish that which is fact from that which is fictional or misleading knowledge. Information sharing and education as we know it has been disrupted and the most significant teacher that would salvage the situation is the one in the mirror. As we lead ourselves under the new world construct, a few strategies prove successful for reeducating the miseducated:

⦁ Mentorship: Find a mentor that possesses a broad range of skillset and one who surpasses your own intelligence by several quotients. Find one who thinks in perspective, and knows more than one way to arrive at a logical standpoint – then, educate yourself by learning and applying the basic principles, morals, and ethics that drive this individual.

⦁ Essentialism: This describes the systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential. When we eliminate everything that is not, we make the highest possible contribution toward that which really matters. Applying essentialism in the curation of our online feeds and social circles can drastically cut exposure to unfiltered pieces of information – since we would only pursue topics deemed essential by choice.

⦁ Embracing Discomfort: We would be miseducated several times and the realization will certainly hurt us or cause us to feel setback. Learning to relearn or return to a novice state will not happen easily and we would often feel frustrated and uncomfortable. Accepting this life-long learning process and actively seeking opportunities to learn, unlearn and relearn is the right approach.

⦁ Community: Find yourself in others, then follow and participate in groups with individuals that resonate with your ideals and share in your interests. The conversations in these groups will inspire and inform you objectively as you walk your path from within.

It is however imperative to insist that, while those who seek knowledge are actively seeking it, those who openly identify as custodians of knowledge must also actively seek to be objective in their information sharing. Words that are not authoritatively factual, lazy guesswork, and the consistent use of abstract language on subject matters that determine our collective existence, should be discarded.

Let us continue to question all things and keep this one truth close: A teacher holds the door open, but the choice to enter is entirely yours.