I didn’t know I was in fight with the internet, but I am—we all are—and I’m getting trounced. You’re probably getting trounced too, but maybe you don’t even know it.
I’ll cut to the chase. I don’t know what’s what anymore. Nearly any piece of information or knowledge which I hold sacred, save for perhaps my belief in gravity and the sky’s blueness, is apt to be overturned, challenged, or dismissed by the internet. Take note that I did not mention the earth’s roundness…
And it’d be one thing if that’s all the internet was—just a contrarian contraption with the sole purpose of overturning, challenging, or dismissing whatever it is you propose to believe.
But it isn’t.
There’s a flip side of this vicious conglomerate of information which will do nothing but blindly support whatever it is you think you know.
As a concrete example, let’s take the concept of “Health.” As a wee lad I was taught the food pyramid. Funny enough, during my elementary schooling, the food pyramid changed. Change is good! Assuming it’s done with the auspices of better and or new information…but that doesn’t mean change is easy…even if it is our only constant.
What I and many others likely didn’t anticipate in either 1992 or 2005, was the degree to which the frequency of changes in information would accelerate. Flash forward to 2023 and I know no one who pays attention to the food pyramid or anything the government says about nutrition—in fact, that seems laughable.
There are people who specialize in nutrition and physical fitness and they are suddenly readily available to everyone via the internet.
The trouble is—all these health experts have conflicting opinions. I live in Los Angeles, a city with a metric ton of vegans. Many claim to feel better on their no-animal-product-diet. And having rubbed shoulders with so many of them, it would not be a stretch for someone like myself to become interested in the lifestyle.
I could google—or more likely look on Instagram (I’m too afraid of Tik Tok)—for vegan experts and vegan recipes and invariably I’d discover the benefits of the diet, from physical, moral, and environmental standpoints.
Let’s say in this hypothetical scenario, I try veganism. And just as I’m getting into it, I meet with a friend for lunch. This friend used to avoid meat, in fact, in the past, I frequently ate meat while he ordered vegetarian or vegan options.
But now he says he’s heard a lot about soy lately, and how soy is actually a destructive agricultural force destroying the soil. He also says soy is high in estrogen, which is a damaging hormone for me (a man).
Appalled and intrigued, I return to the internet, to find a new bevy of experts who advocate in almost the exact opposite direction of the vegan influencers.
The meat folk say meat is good! The meat folk say our stomachs aren’t designed to eat leaves like we did when we were gorillas. The meat folk tell me about the magic, nutritious wonder of eggs!
This isn’t a real debate I’m having—I have my own dietary preferences but that’s not what I’m interested in here. I’m interested in the crossroads where your beliefs become challenged, and I think health is a good field to examine said crossroads.
You might be more likely to come to such a crossroads in the political realm but we all know how stubborn that arena tends to be. You’re more apt to become irate or disgusted than you are to actually listen to the counterpoints of your political ideology.
But health—maybe you’d listen—because, well, what if you don’t listen and you become ill? Or your life is cut tragically short because you refused to believe an alternative? Or perhaps most realistically—what if you made a change that made you feel so much better than you do now? What if this change helps you become the person you always dreamed of? Are you just going to leave that chance behind because you’re dogmatic in your exaltation of plants or your exaltation of meat?
I don’t know what the right answer is.
That’s my issue. I am paralyzed by the quantity and conflicting nature of the information available to me. My head is clouded because of it, and I’m less likely to believe anyone’s opinion because there is an infinite number of devil’s advocates waiting in the wings of the world wide web.
By now you’re probably thinking what I’m thinking: think for yourself, Jack!
Well you’re right. And often by the end of such writings I find I was, unbeknownst to me, teaching myself a lesson.
The more I write—here, there, anywhere—the more I feel like I’m talking in circles. I feel I’m just regurgitating the same sort of (personal or perhaps) universal truth which could be boiled down to a yin yang or c’est la vie.
But even so it’s good to express it! It’s good to wring out that Modern Anxiety—and for me to scream into the void hoping that an echo returns and someone feels the same.
So in closing, I humbly ask you, my readers…
To grant me the strength not to be torn in infinite directions by infinite information.
To be open to new information but not beholden to it.
And to continue to strive for balance.
Bless us, oh (meme) Lord.
Amen.
It’s been over a year since I posted…so to all who are reading…thank you. Also—if you’re looking for something relevant, check out this article I wrote on The Last of Us, which is now a major series for HBO Max.
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We’ve been let down hard by basically all of the institutions that have been a source of truth for so long. The internet has been used by them for a while now to continue the push of information into our heads, but as you seem to allude to, there is a new hope. Can we follow you on twitter, Jack?