Five years ago I wrote about the tendency on the web to tend toward constant doubt and outrage. Now, five years late, that trend continues, exacerbated by the platform monopolists who understand that outrage sells more advertising. I wrote that social media have created a worldwide Dunning-Kruger effect. Our collective self-perception of knowledge acquired through social media is greater than it actually is. And the outrage continues because we ignore our common humanity. We do.
I concluded that as we become more connected we should not be cutting out social media, instead we should be using them in smarter ways. Today we all have to work and live smarter, by connecting to our networks and communities. These are essential to ensure that we do not become drowned out by the noise of the Internet of Beefs.
I continue to work against the forces that push us towards constant doubt and outrage but it is a real challenge today. The structural manipulation of media continues and conspiratorial content is still easier to find than scientific material. We are the media and we are asleep at the switch.
So, once again, I offer the PKM workshop as an attempt at pre-empting the automation of everything, and I think that this workshop may be for the last time. Registration closes very soon …
