It’s easy to imagine the devil delighting in all this: angry tribalism, addictive triviality, amusing ourselves to death. As humans become more stressed, numbed, disoriented, distracted, and paralyzed by the impenetrable glut of information, chaos reigns. As chaos reigns, sin thrives.
It’s interesting that the fall of man in Genesis 3 came about because of temptations of knowledge: fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In our age too, the lure of infinite, godlike knowledge wreaks havoc. I sometimes ponder that the logo on my iPhone—a device that approximates godlike knowledge if ever there was one—is an apple with a bite mark. A nod to Eve’s original sin? An ode to humanity’s insatiable hunger for infinite knowledge? Perhaps. But just as for Adam and Eve in Eden, so it is for us: the desire to know everything only leads to grief.
Good reporting takes time. Sources must be verified. The fuller picture of out-of-context quotes, images, and videos must be sought. But the “fortune favors the fast” nature of journalism today often skips these essential steps. Further, we consumers are often eager to share things on the spot. Our quick-draw posture on social media is often “post first, think later” (if we think at all). This is disastrous—not only because it makes us easy to manipulate, but also because it erodes our credibility and can do great harm to others.
Good reporting takes time. Sources must be verified. The fuller picture of out-of-context quotes, images, and videos must be sought. But the “fortune favors the fast” nature of journalism today often skips these essential steps. Further, we consumers are often eager to share things on the spot. Our quick-draw posture on social media is often “post first, think later” (if we think at all). This is disastrous—not only because it makes us easy to manipulate, but also because it erodes our credibility and can do great harm to others.
- Brett McCracken, The Wisdom Pyramid:
Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World, 2021
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