informational distancing
put the device down and walk away
Since the coronavirus pandemic became serious in the United States, I’ve been struggling with how the crisis intersects with my work. Disinformation is probably killing people. The “infodemic” has naturally — and rightly — been getting a lot of attention. It would seem a perfect entré into writing for me. But in addition to struggling with the actual act of writing itself (somehow the existential dread that surrounds arranging words into a sentence is even more fraught these days) I’ve felt alternating waves of frustration (“I can’t believe people still need to read this! We’ve been repeating it for years! Of course a pandemic is the ideal environment in whch disinformation can spread!”) and guilt (“Poor me, struggling with sitting and writing, safe and healthy in my house, while thousands of people are dying. Pour me another drink”).
My ultimate goal in my work has always been to help people, but now it seems even more important to engage constructively rather than contributing to the doomscrolling that has become endemic of the coronavirus era. I tried to do that in an essay for New Statesman, arguing for what I call “informational distancing” — literally putting down your device and walking the fuck away — in order to break the grip of emotional manipulation that fuels COVID-19 dis- and misinformation.
Rather than allowing ourselves to be played by bad actors, when we feel emotion rising, we should step away from the screen and take a deep breath (or ten). By putting actual physical distance between ourselves and our devices, we’re not only allowing our emotions time to cool off, we’re interrupting the algorithmic tyranny on which disinformation runs, keeping us scrolling through our neverending news feeds and recommendation rabbit holes. And most importantly, we ourselves are not amplifying disinformation by sharing it.
It’s a simple thing, and yet so many people — the President of the United States included — don’t seem to be capable of doing it.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), April 7, at 3pm ET I’ll be speaking at a webcast event with three Wilson Center colleagues. We are discussing (surprise!) disinformation amid the pandemic in Russia, China, and Brazil. I’m sure we’ll discuss the U.S. domestic situation as well. I hope you’ll tune in! Sign up here.
Stay safe and healthy. Jake and Baxter send their love.
