The technological progress in accessing information is incredible. With a click of a mouse on a computer, pressing a button on a remote control, or a mobile phone, countless data is instantly available to us.
At first glance, it seems like we have finally achieved the dream of fast and easy access to information, but in practice, it’s not quite so. By using modern IT devices, which we rely on as a necessary form of literacy, artificial needs and additional limitations have been created, which require significant time and money consumption. Due to the large number of diverse data on everything and anything, and the lack of criteria, the credibility of many data is questionable. The information we use is mostly superficial, and as we usually can’t see the tree from the forest, the good ones get lost in the pile of information waste.
The hyperproduction of various data has created a form of global information pollution that deeply affects the human being and encompasses all aspects and layers of society. It is mostly transmitted by mass media. The media communication, through direct and indirect forms of propaganda, whose tentacles constantly touch and capture our attention, whether enticing or frightening us. Through systematic informative treatment, different paradigms and desired forms of thinking are shaped, maintaining the illusion of reality – a directed image of the world.
Freedom and objectivity of information essentially boil down to what is attractive enough to be sold as information and what can financially propagate itself.
If we look at the offering of television programs or newspaper headlines, we will see how much superficial and negative content there is in them. Respecting different tastes is one thing, but drawing attention to banalities or emphasizing individual examples of crimes, tragedies, and perversions, catering to the low passions and weaknesses of people is something entirely different.
Why do almost all breaking news have to be negative? The truth is that the world is in crisis and there is a lot of bad in it, but someone must also be reporting on the positive aspects and stories that inspire and uplift. Billions of people are doing something good that could be found as a positive example in the daily news.
If we take into account the fact that what is not announced in the mainstream media publicly does not exist or is automatically assumed to be insignificant, we can imagine the extent to which the media have taken over the interpretation of reality and their influence.
Today’s aggressive informatization poisons children, takes away their time for learning and socializing through play. It deprives young people of acquiring work habits and the value of lived experiences. It alienates people and hampers their natural need for creative socializing.
Instead of advocating for “free and objective” information that hasn’t made people better, wouldn’t it be more useful to think about responsible and affirmative information if we want to resist this form of global pollution from which many other forms of contemporary alienation arise?