by Simran Jayasinghe
During the ongoing pandemic, I have noticed that people do not want to listen to public health officials. For example, a lot of people don’t want to social distance, or wear masks when they go out, even though there is a lot of scientific evidence that these measures reduce the spread of the virus. Public health officials continually try to convey the importance of wearing a mask in public, and staying at least 6 feet apart from strangers, yet we still see pictures of crowded beaches and cases keep climbing.
I think this is partly because the Internet has made everyone feel like they’re an expert on everything, including COVID-19. With a quick internet search, you can bring up thousands of results on a given topic. The internet can give you info on anything from how to build a bookshelf, or cook food, to information on COVID-19. There is a lot of information because anyone can post on the internet, experts and non-experts alike. Having a lot of information can be great if you want to read multiple different restaurant reviews to see where you want to eat, but is not as helpful when you want to find information on COVID-19. It is important that people know how to tell when a source is reliable, and when facts are good or not. Another important thing to remember when reading articles on the Internet, is that you can read about people’s various opinions, and facts. I came across an article from NPR about how the internet is making people experts, that was published in 2007, but is still, if not more relevant today, in light of the recent pandemic. In the age of the internet, it is important to check the place you are getting your information from, because not everyone on the internet is necessarily educated in what they are writing about. Nowadays, anyone can easily get a domain name, build a website, and start posting information.
I don’t know what it was like before the Internet, but my dad says that before the Internet, people asked their teachers, doctors, and health officials for information, or went to a library and read published, peer-reviewed books. Since we can all get information on the Internet quickly, from the phones we all have in our hands, people think that what they read on the internet can be more important than what public health officials say. It is also easy for people to only look at information that agrees with their point of view, and make an information bubble for themselves. For example, if you only follow one news channel, you are most likely only going to hear news that favors a certain viewpoint, and that is usually going to be the viewpoint you suscribe to. The Internet is overall, an amazing resource, but in the time of a pandemic, can bring up problems.
NPR Article: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15671312