What's fantastic is how quickly we all knew that.
Just this morning, pictures of her and her dramatic quitting were zooming around the Series of Tubes, being shared as if they were fact. By this afternoon, the full scrutiny of the Internet was on them, wondering who this woman was, where she was, if she would grant interviews, what the specifics of her job were, etc.
Soon enough the truth came out, that the photographs of a woman quitting her job and accusing her boss of being a sexist Farmville addict were, indeed, a hoax. As nice as the mini-meme was, I was more excited at how quickly the collective intelligence of everyone was able to ferret out bullshit. Sure, not in terms of something truly important, but the world very quickly found the truth.
And the truth stuck. People didn't keep believing the meme because they wanted to. Reality surfaced, and the pleasant illusion was let go.
I might sound a little idealistic here, but this makes me very happy. More people than ever before have access to accuracy, truth, and good information. More people than ever are able to look up and find what is, in fact, real. More people than ever before illuminate that which is real that that which isn't.
And, when faced with the truth, it's wonderful to see people discard illusions, even little ones. Yes, this is an inconsequential issue, but I felt rather good today knowing that our collective intelligence can, indeed, overthrow pleasant unrealities.
Will the bloom come off the rose a little when your aunt emails this to you eight months from now?
ReplyDeleteI am going to take this whole blog as a big ol' compliment. I feel all warm and fuzzy.
ReplyDeleteRip- My aunts don't email such things to me, being as they are fairly intelligent.
ReplyDeletePuella- You're welcome! I'm glad you feel warm and fuzzy!
I intended no slight against your aunts, I meant that more generally. That acquaintance who sends you bullshit fwds until you snopes them into silence. Gratifying as Internet's response is in this case, my point is that months, years from now some idiot will dust this off and it'll make the rounds 'mongst the feckless types who Like what is obviously horseshit on facebook to see what terrible tweet Justin Bieber hath twoten.
ReplyDelete