SUPERCONNECT. DISCONNECT?

Fine Art Screen-Print. 2019

Bombarded with saturated quantities of information through social media these days, it is often very difficult to form a rounded opinion on current issues that resonates and belongs to real world experiences. The capacity to identify, and to decipher reliable sources of information from those with inaccuracy, misunderstanding or maligned intent has become increasingly difficult. Accounting for the sea of never-ending public commentaries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the task of forming a wholesome opinion on near any current subject becomes a daunting, and often impossible task. This effort to attain valuable information, I believe, leaves people in a state of lethargic placidness. Contented with being fed content that satiates already existent sympathies; the emergence of identity based groups surrounding these sympathies serves to validate the individual as part of a collective of like minded individuals. The danger of the formation of these groups is their divisive influence on a society formed on a foundation of disinformation or ‘fake news’. The formation and division of these groups on virtual platforms is detrimental because it misdirects attention from real world struggle, and opens dialogues to disproportionate or non-existent issues.