If you charge the mobile all night, do you charge the battery? Do mobile companies deliberately slow down existing models when a new model is launched? Does the computer have to be turned off every night to work properly and last longer? Can the airport X-ray machines erase the memory of the mobile? Truth or myth? What do you think?
Keeping up with all the ins and outs of technology in this rapidly changing world can be difficult, right? It’s completely understandable (and unavoidable) for some false information to creep onto the web, here and there. But when misinformation becomes a myth, it can persist in the culture for years, long after it has been debunked.
The global internet village
The “global village” was the brainchild of American media researcher Marshal McLuhan, who as early as 1964 put forward the idea that in the electronic age, everyone would have access to the same information through technology. This appears to have been confirmed online. But the evidence suggests that the centralizing trend of global monopoly media is growing. A small number of companies, including Facebook and Google, now control information around the world, and almost all of them are American. And, in emerging economies and authoritarian states, hopes of democratizing social movements are being dashed by the growing foray of government propaganda into the online space.
And remember, our anonymity and privacy can easily be compromised on the web, as can the reliability of the news circulating on the internet. To avoid being a victim of computer intruders, it is recommended to use a combination of security software and VPN network. This will not only protect our privacy but also ensure our security through data packet encryption.
The Internet was expected to renew democracy, address the hegemony of the monopoly news providers, and bring us all into a global community. But, in recent months, that idea has been undermined by a new myth that suggests that democracy is, in fact, being overthrown by the Internet: Russian robots, fake news, and that news organizations are losing its power to keep people informed.
Let us, therefore, take a walk through the myths most widespread on the net. Do you believe any of them yet?
