The best place in the world to stay informed, the internet, is also one of the worst for it. These days, timelines are a chaos of misinformation, war propaganda, fake videos and accounts, and violent content monetized by a crazed algorithm. I am not a radical: European Commissioner Thierry Breton has told X, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, in other words, so that they take control of their content seriously. But that goes against the essence of their business: the hijacking of our attention through the increasing volume and sensationalization of that same content.
There are some solutions, and one depends on our will: we have to make the decision to be informed and go out every day to achieve it. This, despite a technology industry that adopted dark patterns to hook us into unconscious, addictive and unsatisfying browsing, and that boycotted good ideas to maintain control of our information diet, such as the RSS reader that Google closed, or the Nuzzel tool , which allowed us to discover what our contacts liked the most, and with which Twitter ended.
We should give up the algorithm that has softened our necks and brains. Stop using the networks to entertain ourselves with the drift and spectacle of indignation. Train conscious and deliberate navigation. Remember the places that served us in the past and thank them by returning. Write down the names of those we admire for how they write, analyze, photograph, report or stream and follow them over the years wherever they are. Discover new voices. Pay attention to their recommendations. Take care of our markers like a garden. Have favorite podcasts and newsletters. See what is said outside. Think, in short, what is important to dedicate the following minutes to: perhaps to understand how the map of Israel and Palestine has changed in recent decades?
It is urgent to use the network again actively and not just passively: the mobile phone does not have to be just a receiver for pirate stations. Let’s make communication two-way. The reasons for taking responsibility for our navigation are not new. We have been talking about mental health and productivity for years, but there is also ethics.