Social media

Fast news, fast fashion, fast food. The world is growing at a rapid rate and anyone outside of Gen Z seems to be struggling with the innovative ways that youth have decided to disseminate messages. The key to it all is social media, it in essence has the power to make a ‘nobody’ a somebody. What’s the quickest way to become a TikTok star or Insta famous? Post something outrageous, spread something people have never heard of, within seconds a simple message can alter how an individual across the globe thinks, what they choose to purchase or how they choose to act. This can be great when spreading awareness of what is truly happening, we as the public are no longer fed what news outlets choose to tell us, but how positive can this really be with so much power in so many hands?

Richard Okorogheye

Sad news of the death of missing, 19 year old Oxford Brookes student, Richard Okorogheye hit newspapers and social media platforms. It appeared people were worried sick about the whereabouts of Richard Okorogheye but once people had discovered that the body found in Epping Forest lake was his it took about 2 days for everyone to move on. Fast news has clearly desensitized us and model Eva apio voiced this on her Instagram story writing, “pree how nobody is talking about it anymore… that’s how fast people will forget about you when you’re gone”. Without fast news the update on his death probably would not have been so widespread nor so quick but nobody is given time to ponder over the news because sadly it is on to the next tragedy. It makes you think, how good is spreading awareness if people no longer care to act on it?

Fake news

A term that became most popular when used by Donald Trump when he faced a multitude of accusations. In a time where news is being passed around faster than you can blink it’s difficult to spot the difference between fake news and the truth. Fast news is not to blame for fake news but it plays a part in how easy fake news can blend in with the happenings of the world. Fast news again is a great tool but it definitely allows for random, outrageous stories to take the spotlight without much question from the public, we are easily gullible and easily influenced because of it.

What do you think?

I wanted to shed some light on how we navigate in a world flooded with different news stories that are both positive in spreading awareness but negative in distorting our reality. There’s no solution as to how these negatives can be rid of because fast news isn’t going anywhere, we live in a world where money is glorified so highly that people will post anything to gain 15 minutes of fame for a story that may not even be true.