By Aly Kamadia, Editor-In-Chief, iDose

Why do our minds all too often become slaves to absurd lies and myths?

In an article featured by iDose this week, MIT economist Daron Acemoglu provides a familiar though pressing reminder.

While noting that many researchers have documented falsehoods proliferating quicker than facts on social media platforms such as Facebook and Youtube, the value of Acemoglu’s piece stretches well beyond the familiar warnings of fake news. (While the deleterious mental health issues caused by social media are not discussed, perhaps the author judged that it was beyond the scope of the article.)

Unlike the evolution of other communication technologies, the author warns, social media is “shaking the very foundations of human communication and social cohesion”.

Is Acemoglu correct in characterizing social media as such? If so, is he correct in his thoughts on where this will lead?

For those interested in current affairs and a host of other topics, these are profound questions, for which the marketing slogans and talking points from Big Tech have nothing to teach us.

If anything, CEOs from certain social media companies suffer from delusions involving strange ‘utopias’ – in which technology can do no harm, and every possible future scenario involves them, coincidentally, enjoying the lion’s share of society’s fruits.

Stay safe,