Civilised society has for centuries depended on the truth and accuracy of the written or spoken word, but we are now starting to face major challenges to this historical and accepted fact.

The current rapid appearance on the computerised Web of more and more unprofessional social and political influencers is fast bringing with it the threat of mass brainwashing, poor grammar and the loss of essential truths and even words.

From what I can see, an increasing number of people here and throughout Australia are starting to believe that the digitalised social media platforms carry more truth and accuracy than the long-time printed word which originally took over from the highly trusted town criers of old.

How many times each week do we hear our friends and contacts exclaiming that certain facts must be true because they are espoused on the Web or on it’s uncontrolled social media platforms?

It would appear to me that these “say what you like” platforms are fast taking over from the printed word of the Fourth Estate media which still has to rigidly abide by heavy constraints of law, professional ethics and national decency.

In turn, this situation is causing an increasing number of people to believe in digitalised ‘fantasy land’ propositions all too often put forward by untrained backyard commentators with little or no factual backing or checking.

Because someone of miniscule or no authority publishes something on the social media web, this does not mean for an instant that it is correct or should be accepted as the norm for a particular political or other subject.

I continually hear individual Web browsers saying that, “because it is on the Web, it is true.” The Western World’s principal detractors in Russia and China have obviously heard similar comments as they are now using our social media to spread politically charged untruths in desperate efforts to influence Western thoughts, particularly in the case of trying to influence election results in their favour.

The growing intrusion of the social media platforms in our lives is also assisting in the demise of printed national and regional newspapers which, unlike the social media itself, has to abide by a very long list of stringent laws and regulations aimed at preventing false truths and the spreading of poor standards.

As it is, the print media throughout Australia and elsewhere today is struggling to survive the effects of inflation, affecting as it does the publishing industry — let alone the increasing competition from social media outlets and even from the Web itself.

Newspapers are shrinking in numbers and in size as they have to compete with online opinions of dubious integrity and the sometimes “news entertainment” broadcasts of certain popular TV channels.

Healthy local journalism is an essential ingredient for the attainment of unadulterated Democracy and for readers to be adequately informed about their local, State, National and even World affairs.

‘Digital journalism’ by anyone and everyone, on the other hand, is facing a pressing need for accuracy, public accountability, truthfulness and objectivity.

Artificial Intelligence is also now starting to be used without much care within the social media landscape as it’s published material is changed and manipulated willy-nilly without responsibility. By comparison, however, good print journalists know only too well that they have to use their analytical minds to decide whether the news items and articles they write are based on established fact and not on split-second ‘garden fence’ emotions or well thought out plans to disrupt targeted individuals or society.

The emergence of social media as a modern means of communication and influence has also started to threaten the use of good grammar and words.

This was very evident by the recent announcement by Australia’s well recognised Macquarie Dictionary of its latest people’s choice competition into finding this year’s most popular word.

In a shortlist of 16 of these, Macquarie has officially included words like “looksmaxxing,” meaning the improvement of one’s appearance and “enshitification,” denoting the deterioration of a service or product.

The competition organisers have also put forward “skibidi” as a word used by people in Australia today for something considered to be really ‘cool.’

After reading through Macquarie’s full list, I came to the conclusion that only one of the people’s choice preferred words — “brainrot” — was passable within our national language as we still know it. This eight-letter word is apparently well used these days to describe diminished mental capacity as a result of reading — yes, you have it — social media content!

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 11 December 2024.