Author: wyred

It is the age of information.

We can easily find out details of almost anything we want to know about.

We are also easily bombarded with things we may not want to know about.

Huge tech companies gather information about us, almost enough for them to build a profile of our likes, dislikes, habits, political views.

After learning about Cambridge Analytica obtaining user data and using it to influence the USA’s presidential election, I wonder if the information shown to me on various social media platforms, news platforms, were tailored to influence me towards a certain path.

Even though I believe myself to be neutral, always maintaining a neutral position and try to examine things on both sides of the coin, I know for a fact that anyone and everyone, including myself, will always be biased against something no matter what.

And to get someone to be biased against something is very easy.

If I know a person is against a political party, I would subtly show him articles or stories that confirms his beliefs, further boosting his bias-ness.

Or show him a different set of articles and stories, that would contradict his beliefs till he questions them, under the holy guise of “you should examine things from both sides of the coin”.

It is the age of misinformation.

I came across a guy who would always talk about the things going on in a forum that he frequently visits. He is easily influenced by the majority of users in that forum. He’s being shaped by that forum.

I had a chat with a woman about Donald Trump winning the presidential election. I suggested that it was a “good thing” and was quickly told about a subreddit dedicated to the “bad things” that he has done. Other conversations with her often contain a reference to reddit. I believe she’s being shaped by that subreddit.

And all we need is a character with enough influence in either platforms to reshape their thoughts.

The internet has a strange way of changing a person’s views.

And I think the only way to protect myself is to question everything and take it with a pinch of salt.

Instead of relying on social media for entertainment, I would instead rely on video games, books, comics for it.

Video games, science fiction novels, comics, have really good stories and I would rather let these forms of entertainment shape me instead of social media.

Sometimes, the people who you think are good friends, turn out to be the ones who are not worth your friendship.

And the people who you think are not worth your friendship, turn out to be great friends.

That, or I’m bad at judging people.

I use search engines a lot for work, for satisfying my curiosity, for finding the answer to the meaning of life (turns out it is 42).

The first thing I always check is the date of the result.

Why?

Because the answers to my questions may change over time.

The answer at that time may only apply to a software version that existed only at that time. A newer software version today may have a different answer.

Or maybe someone else has found a better way to solve the question using technology available today that didn’t exist back then when the question was asked.

So why blog about this?

Because often, among the answers, there is often that one guy that replies “This is a duplicate question” or “This has already been answered” and then points to a similar question or answer that is many years old.

Not forgetting the once amusing but now annoying lmgtfy.com,

I understand the frustration of having to see the same questions pop up over and over again. I don’t have a solution for it. My only advice is to have more patience or just ignore it if you can’t deal with it.

But sometimes, the same question has to be asked again because answers may change as time passes. (Of course not ask everyday but once in a few months?)