As I sat this morning to write this blog I was interrupted by a whatsapp message. Of course these days Whatsapp is the way to share your thoughts or forwarded ones with the world. Back when we SMSed, which seems like eons ago but really it's only 20 years old, we had only 145 characters for self expression and used it with great frugality. Messages used to border on being cryptic and sent regularly by those who had one of those unlimited SMS packs!
But there was something back then as well as is today that most people commit in their effort to share messages: sharing misinformation. The cost of a message is only realized in real terms. That means the real cost of sending an SMS is approx Re 1 and the internet pack for a Whatsapp dramatically brings down the cost of each message to nearly 0.12 paise for a whatsapp message of 20KB which is actually quite a large message. What we never account is the notional cost the reader bears of the misinformation. In case he does not verify the information and does go ahead and believe and god forbid promotes it further, the loss of credibility due to the incorrect information maybe damaging to his repute. Like this informational nugget doing the rounds that India is called India because the British shortened the term Independent Nation Declared In August. Now you don't even need a snopes.com or truthorfiction.com to verify this one. Would the British have decided years before our independence when they called the land India that if we ever free this nation we will do so in August?!?
The other grave danger is in actually following the advice given on these messages. Like the childline number 1098. It has been called so many times by people for picking up leftover party food from their homes that they put a message up on the website saying that they do not feed young children and that they are only here to protect the children from abuse and provide counselling to them.
Information truly is power and with every ounce of power comes an ounce of responsibility of using it well. The 3 question test by Aristotle is excellent for this:
Q1. Is the information verified by you to be true?
Q2. Is the information something positive and good for you recipients?
Q3. Is the information useful to to you recipients?
The next generations will remember us not for how we dressed or spoke but for how judicious we were in ensuring we propagated verified, good, useful and true information!
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