The Israel-Hamas war has helped turn social media platforms into more of a dystopian rage machine than usual, with disinformation and dubious invective aplenty.
I don’t mean to sound flip. I empathize with anyone who, in a moment of crisis, feels an earnest desire to raise awareness. And yet, as someone who watched scores of posts signaling pro-Black solidarity in 2020 net very little in terms of actual reform, I’m unmoved by many of the evocative posts I see online, which are plentiful yet, in the moment I see them, often hard to verify.
The past couple of days have made that abundantly clear.
Following a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, social media was rife with speculation about the possible culprit, with some blaming the Israeli government and others blaming Hamas.
U.S. officials said preliminary evidence suggests Israel wasn’t responsible for the blast, though it remains an open question.
The ordeal helped demonstrate how social media platforms can be overrun with armchair punditry from users who seem to get their news on the crisis solely via algorithms long criticized for fueling conflict and disinformation.
The deluge of social media misinformation about the war has U.S. lawmakers from both major parties taking umbrage with platforms they say haven’t done enough to curb violent and inaccurate posts, according to Politico. Those platforms include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter.
But the outlet noted that lawmakers’ tough talk against social media companies is unlikely to change much, given that legislation curbing social media’s outsize influence has been elusive in Washington.
So it appears some personal responsibility is in order for all of us.
As I’ve watched some of these ferocious — and at times, fact-free — conversations unfold, I’ve had one question netizens ought to consider: Is your post meant to raise awareness, or is it meant to satisfy a desire to feel useful?
I think both can be powerful impulses in times of crisis. But it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that minute-by-minute social media musings on the Israel-Palestine conflict — particularly, those coming from apparent newcomers to the debate — aren’t suitable for achieving peace in wartime. They seem more likely to inflame conflict than end it.
Here, I must give a bit of credit to the brains behind the social media platforms, who have done a stellar job of training users to believe they’ll miss out on vital information by logging off — or leaving these platforms entirely. But consider all the potentially disorienting information you stand to be bombarded with if you stay on them (perhaps, for hours a day).
I am an evangelist of the belief that people ought to spend less time on social media platforms to protect their sense of reality. The fact many of these platforms appear to have ignited an epistemic crisis — mass confusion over fact and fiction — is validating on that front.
But I always welcome converts. I insist, we don’t need our information piped to us via social media algorithms to receive it. And if you won’t log off for the sake of your credibility or sanity, consider whether your words are actually helping the people you seek to support — or just adding to the cacophonic social media storm.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.