National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; object number NPG.93.355
I hate to break the bad news to you, but the Earth is not flat, Bigfoot is not roaming the forests, the Loch Ness Monster is not hiding in a Scottish lake, and yes — we really did land on the moon. These are all myths. They’ve been debunked for decades, some for generations. Yet somehow, they continue to thrive.
And the reason they thrive says something uncomfortable about where we are as a society.
We are living through a moment where misinformation spreads faster than truth, emotion outruns evidence, and entertainment is often mistaken for reality. Social media didn’t invent this problem — the old supermarket tabloids were doing it long before — but social media supercharged it. What used to be a fringe rumor whispered in the checkout line is now a viral post shared millions of times before breakfast.
The result is a culture where the loudest claim wins, not the most accurate one.
The algorithm rewards outrage, not understanding
Social platforms are designed to keep people scrolling, not thinking. The content that spreads is the content that triggers:
- anger
- fear
- shock
- curiosity
- tribal loyalty
Facts rarely produce those reactions. Myths do. Conspiracies do. Outrage does. And so the system elevates the very things that make us less informed.
We’ve replaced expertise with “I saw a video about it”
In a healthy information environment, people rely on:
- verified reporting
- subject‑matter experts
- primary sources
- evidence
- In today’s environment, people rely on:
- influencers
- anonymous accounts
- edited clips
- memes
“Research” that begins and ends with a search bar. It’s not that people are incapable of understanding the truth — it’s that the truth is competing with a nonstop stream of content designed to be more exciting than reality.
The line between news and entertainment has blurred
This is where the real damage happens.
When news outlets — local or national — stretch facts, frame speculation as inevitability, or lean into fear‑based headlines, they unintentionally mimic the same tactics that make conspiracy theories spread. It’s not the same content, but it’s the same mechanics.
And every time that line blurs, trust erodes a little more.
People aren’t getting dumber — the information environment is getting noisier
It’s easy to blame individuals for believing nonsense. But the truth is more complicated.
People are overwhelmed. They’re bombarded with content. They’re exhausted by spin. They’re trying to make sense of a world where the signal‑to‑noise ratio has collapsed.
In that environment, myths survive because they’re simple. Reality is harder.
This is why clear, neutral reporting matters
The Decatur Herald was created for a reason: to offer a space where facts come first, where speculation isn’t treated as news, and where readers can trust that what they’re seeing is grounded in reality — not emotion, not agenda, not algorithms.
If anything, the rise of misinformation makes that mission more important, not less.
We can’t control what social media platforms amplify.
We can’t stop every rumor.
We can’t fix the entire information ecosystem.
But we can provide one corner of the world where clarity still matters.
And sometimes, that’s enough to make a difference.
