Daily Times

Sir: While the advent of home computers, the internet, social media and smart-phones have made access to information far easier and quicker than it has ever been, these developments have also dragged the world into the post-truth era.

The post-truth era is a time when objective facts have less sway over forming public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. One see’s this all the time. There is very little space left for neutral discourse in the modern age.

This is because people choose to subscribe to information resources which will only confirm the beliefs the already hold, regardless of how true they are. Social media and the internet have a major role to play here. Many in the world today choose to get there news from social media subscriptions rather than proven and reputable news sources. When subscribing to news sources, they only subscribe to those channels which will have good things to say about personalities they already like, and bad things to say about personalities they don’t like.

This can easily be seen in the modern political discourses taking place anywhere in the world. It can be seen in Pakistan with the rivalry between the PTI and the PML-N. PML-N supporters subscribe to news sources which only focus on the PTI’s shortcomings. PTI supporters will subscribe to news sources which will only focus on the PML-N’s short comings. The phenomenon was also seen in the 2016 elections in the United States. In fact, many analysts say that if we had not been living in the post-truth era, Donald Trump would not have been able to become the President of the United States.

The post-truth era brings with it a need for introspection. We all must ask ourselves if we are being honest with ourselves when we seek out information which would help us form our opinions.

AHMED REHMAN

Karachi

Published in Daily Times, November 1^st 2017.