{"id":2079,"date":"2016-11-20T18:24:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/not-so-superhighway_112016\/"},"modified":"2016-11-20T18:24:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T18:24:00","slug":"not-so-superhighway_112016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/not-so-superhighway_112016\/","title":{"rendered":"The information not-so-superhighway"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Remember all that wide-eyed excitement when we first started using the “Information Superhighway” known as the Internet? Remember how we were all going to use this amazing new media to share<\/em> information, to learn<\/em> from millions of new information sources, and – even more importantly – to learn from each other<\/em>?<\/p>\n So what’s gone wrong? Why has the Internet also become a mechanism to block out<\/em> information and promote factless discussion and news, often based on misinformation, lies, propaganda and emotion?<\/p>\n How have we managed to survive a year and a half of election campaigning, where we endured two sides obsessed with battering each other with insults, almost completely devoid of any smart new policies, practical debate and absolutely no ability to listen<\/em> to each other. Our whole world of politics has become driven by emotions and personalities, not facts, ideas and policies.<\/p>\n I am sure I am among many of you who have fallen out with friends, unfriended people (or been unfriended) on Facebook, received abuse on Twitter and been sucked into nasty arguments with others who just refuse to listen. And if I had to dig deep into my conscience, I have to admit I may not have always listened to the rationale of the other side<\/em> also.<\/p>\n But can we all get past this experience and learn to listen<\/em> to each other again? Can we learn to have rational debate and conversation, where we can express our views, back them up with real facts and ideas – as opposed to this closed, angry style of discourse, that is threatening to divide entire nations?<\/p>\n