Recently I read a book called
Factfulness. It is written by Hans Rosling, well known as a Statistician,
Researcher, and Public Speaker. He was a man who wanted to see a change in the
world, specifically to change the way we see and react to things, and our
knowledge of the world around us.
In this book, Hans talks about how our view of the world, probably even yours right now, is distorted
and not the real one. This can be credited to a multitude of reasons, according
to Hans, one of them being the media. I would like to talk about that a bit, so
below is my ‘rant.’
In part of the book, Hans
talks about how the news provided by the media about the world is often, to put
it bluntly, fake and outdated. According to research done by him and his team,
the facts are mostly put out of proportion, appearing much bigger or smaller a
problem than we realize. However, do not be quick to anger, for he is not to
blame, and nor is the media. In fact they are both correct, in their own respect.
You cannot blame the media because, as reasoned by Hans, it is written by journalists. Journalists are also human beings. We all tend to exaggerate things frequently, such as the price of an item we think is ridiculous, or the number of people at an event, and so on. The people working at the media tend to do this very thing, just that unlike us they can’t help it. A lot of times, either they are simply writing the information they know (which, like any of ours, can be outdated) or trying to make it catchy for the readers (actually, the latter is the main reason, but let’s split even). Unusual things are more likely to kindle our curiosity than common things, as rightly stated by Hans. Here’s two examples of headlines on the price of apples:
“Apple prices rise by 2 INR, due to high demand by consumers.”
“APPLE PRICES SKYROCKET! VENDORS CHARGING UNBELIEVABLE PRICES!”
Probably not my best example, but you get what I mean. Come on, be honest, which of these articles would you be more interested to click on? You would naturally click on the second one because it is vastly out of proportion, triggers [mild] panic, and because IT IS WRITTEN LIKE THIS. This feed us false information on the price of apples, which then causes panic and makes us imagine a straight, never-ending price gradient for apples. This awakens our other instincts, such as urgency, blame and so on. Probably on Earth 5770, this same scenario caused a massive hysteria by its inhabitants, further prompting rebellions and riots, chaos, and eventually the collapse of the human race. And this is such a common instinct in human beings that we do it sometimes without even realizing it. In case you haven’t noticed, read this paragraph from the start once more.
You cannot blame the media because, as reasoned by Hans, it is written by journalists. Journalists are also human beings. We all tend to exaggerate things frequently, such as the price of an item we think is ridiculous, or the number of people at an event, and so on. The people working at the media tend to do this very thing, just that unlike us they can’t help it. A lot of times, either they are simply writing the information they know (which, like any of ours, can be outdated) or trying to make it catchy for the readers (actually, the latter is the main reason, but let’s split even). Unusual things are more likely to kindle our curiosity than common things, as rightly stated by Hans. Here’s two examples of headlines on the price of apples:
“Apple prices rise by 2 INR, due to high demand by consumers.”
“APPLE PRICES SKYROCKET! VENDORS CHARGING UNBELIEVABLE PRICES!”
Probably not my best example, but you get what I mean. Come on, be honest, which of these articles would you be more interested to click on? You would naturally click on the second one because it is vastly out of proportion, triggers [mild] panic, and because IT IS WRITTEN LIKE THIS. This feed us false information on the price of apples, which then causes panic and makes us imagine a straight, never-ending price gradient for apples. This awakens our other instincts, such as urgency, blame and so on. Probably on Earth 5770, this same scenario caused a massive hysteria by its inhabitants, further prompting rebellions and riots, chaos, and eventually the collapse of the human race. And this is such a common instinct in human beings that we do it sometimes without even realizing it. In case you haven’t noticed, read this paragraph from the start once more.
So who’s fault is it? Is it
ours, for not recognizing it as false news? Is it the journalists? Or maybe the
CEO of the company for hiring them. Or maybe it’s their ancestors to blame.
Maybe the whole evolution process is to blame.
The point is, no one’s to blame. We all make mistakes, and that is completely, understandably alright. However, to some extent, the first claim is correct. We should keep ourselves up to date with the current worldview, to check if we see something doubtful, and not immediately let the rest of the world hear about it through media of any kind. That pretty much sums up the first of many instincts which Hans wrote about.
The point is, no one’s to blame. We all make mistakes, and that is completely, understandably alright. However, to some extent, the first claim is correct. We should keep ourselves up to date with the current worldview, to check if we see something doubtful, and not immediately let the rest of the world hear about it through media of any kind. That pretty much sums up the first of many instincts which Hans wrote about.
Did you like it? If you did,
that’s great. If not, then I have bad news; I intend to keep writing about
this. Toodles!
