The Chant of the Barbie Dolls

We're awash with information; we're drowning in information; there's a deluge of information, a torrent (hah, a bit torrent), a flood.

I suppose the point of that type of metaphor is simply to give the impression of being overwhelmed, overcome, to the point of asphyxiation.

It recently occurred to me that the psychological responses of people in these circumstances hasn't actually changed at all - that homo sapiens is home sapiens whether it's in the digital age, or the middle ages.

I went down a rabbit hole with my favorite AI tool, and we had an interesting conversation about the modes of denialism present in the modern world, and the ancient, from Alex Jones' Infowars and his horrific monetisation of the Sandy Hook tragedy (by denying it took place) to just your raw basic climate denialism all the way back the e.g. the denial of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. That's not even to look at the minimisation of past and current genocides.

And while it's surely the case that there is a "look at me instead" attention seeking when some people deny evident and horrific events occurred (Sandy Hook, the Manchester Arena bombings) I probably buy that there might also be a "the world can't be that bad, I can't believe the horror" element in there too.

To that end - I've coined a new term - "Information Dysphoria" to describe this.

Dysphoria being the opposite of "euphoria".

So Information Dysphoria meaning:

The state of persistent unease, anxiety and disorientation experienced by individuals or societies overwhelmed by a polluted information environment — where the inability to distinguish truth from falsehood produces not just confusion but genuine psychological distress.

So there you have it - the birth of a whole new field of study!

# posted by Flann O'Brien @ 11:46 AM