CHARMAIN NAIDOO: Bombardment of fake news keeps opinion-making at bay
Curiously, trust in US news media has risen since Donald Trump was sworn in, and that is across the political spectrum — Democrats and Republicans
I’m reorganising my social media life, exploring ways to limit my exposure to WhatsApp, e-mails, Facebook, Instagram, podcasts, YouTube, Netflix … just a few of my go-to apps. It all started with a message from my iPhone X a week ago. “Hello Charmain,” the message read, “you have spent an average of three hours and 57 minutes a day on your phone this week.” That’s nearly four hours a day glued to my small screen. Four hours a day that I am not reading a book or doing any of the things that I used to do; four hours of mindlessness, looking at other people’s pictures or posts, or listening to something arbitrary on a podcast or binge watching Netflix or Showmax series — even when I’m at the dentist. Small screen time has meant four hours away from just sitting and thinking — something I used to do that allowed me to form opinions on the world and my place in it. Most importantly, it’s four hours of being bombarded with fake news or subjected to unverified news from untrustworthy sourc...
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