XISKYAVALLADARES
-Religious of the Purity of Mary Congregation
@xiskya
It seems that the "fakes" are all the rage. Fake news, fake images, fake videos. All in order to manipulate reality or, in the words of David Redoli: "More than adapting to reality, We adapt reality to our beliefs. To do this we may go so far as to reject facts and data. We call it cognitive dissonance". We swallow everything that comes to us and not everything that comes to us is verified or contrasted. We are seeing it in the Catalonia issue, but it is in everything, also in the hoaxes that have been spread about the critical state of Benedict XVI, in many words misattributed to Pope Francis, in news about celebrities, and even in false heresies supposedly from Amoris Laetitia. We spend a lot of time dismantling lies when we don't have to.
Manipulation to adapt reality to our convenience is a big problem. But it is not the only one. A few try to manipulate us; the main problem is the speed with which we circulate these manipulations. "fakes" without verifying or contrasting. As if everything that appears on the screens, by the mere fact of appearing, already means that it is true. I don't know if this is due to the hidden desire to be the first to publish, or the ones who most want to be the first, or the ones who most want to be the first to publish. "like" o "retweets" we get, or those of us who have the most impactful image or news.
Maybe we should look inside ourselves, especially to find out what motivates us deep down when we share information or an image. It's not easy, I know. But it helps me to ask myself the question: "Is this going to do any good to those who receive it?" And, of course, check the content well before clicking. Christians cannot settle for post-truth.
Let's not be fooled: everything is a story. The story is almost always very different. Let's look for the truth.
