Why Everything Online Feels Fake (youtube.com)
Now when there's news, he has to jump onto Twitter to get immediate updates on it, but because it's a newsfeed he doesn't see the story. He sees tons of reactions by random people. Finally, he scrolls down far enough he sees the story, which is some small, unconfirmed news source's message. Everyone is retreating it. CNN eventually confirms it, quite a bit later. The ‘Wow’ reactions start going away. Takes start filling in from people, especially extreme stances, because it's Twitter, and it becomes a competition. Who's further to the right or left? Who wants attention more? Then it's reactions to reactions, selecting from a canned reactions menu. Posters must post what they're expected to by the audience of thousands which they've built over several years, to be inconsistent in their response would be negative, and that's why it seems so repetitive, people are reaching into their bag and playing out their brand, and knowing everyone else is doing the same thing. Everyone knows people can't come up with a real take within 5 minutes of every story, they expect a fast take, so why do people trust them? The thing people end up trusting online is anonymous accounts, screenshots on reddit, weird things that pop up in the replies, because those posts seem to be with nothing to gain, but they have just as much to gain from lying as anyone else, but you can't be distrustful or sceptical all the time, you have to trust something, to get a take of what everyone is thinking about something, to get an understanding.
The internet was always supposed to be not serious. A place for experimentation, weird stuff. Not for just publicly condemning political violence.