Misinformation and your opinions

It is becoming all too common nowadays to accidentally find yourself shepherded into having certain opinions, mainly by the kind of media that you consume. Anyone and everyone is subject to it, it doesn't just affect any certain group of people, we are all as susceptible to propaganda and misinformation as each other.

The idea that social media was affecting my opinions first occurred to me when I was having a chat with my parents. I had moved away with my then-girlfriend, and it was one of our first times back home after the move. We got onto some topic when I felt some trigger in my brain go off: "I've heard about this online! I'll share what I know."It was almost like an instinct to parrot back what I had read online as if it was of my own invention.

My parents questioned my rhetoric, and it was in this moment I realised that I couldn't explain this stance very deeply at all. It became clear to me that I had just regurgitated what someone else had written, with the assumption that it was correct (because who would willingly spread misinformation online?).

I still find myself a victim of this kind of thinking every so often, but I try to notice it and readjust myself. It can be frightening how quickly something untrue can be spread on the internet as fact.

As a harmless example of something that happened recently (and what prompted me to write this); I watch video essays about old games from time to time. The kind that are typically hours long and go way too in depth. A creator that I held in high regard published a video about a game that I enjoy, and it turns out that in that video they made a mistake when presenting an argument. There are now people online arguing about this game, taking what this creator said in that video as fact, even though the creator themselves since clarified that it was a mistake. These people are so sure that they are correct, getting angry in comments sections all over, and yet they haven't ever tested this argument out themselves to see if it holds weight.

My goal moving forwards is to try to limit the influence that media has on what I feel about any given subject. I know that this is practically impossible, but minimizing it is better than nothing. Just because someone claims that "most people think x", or that "y is factually correct", you do not have to just accept this blindly. They themselves could be subject to misinformation.

The sensible, pragmatic approach would be to form your own opinion from the evidence that you have available, rather than relying on word of mouth that could be sourced from who-knows-where.