As someone who has been consuming and producing digital content for 19 years, I am deeply concerned about the media surrounding the 2020 primaries.

Credit: peaksteady.com

I was a senior in high school when we got our very first home computer. A big, white desktop and accompanying tower graced our living room in 1999. When I’d come home in the afternoons, I’d plop down at the bulky oak computer desk, insert my AOL disc and start the dial up process.

I’d sit and listen to this sound. If you can’t hear it in your head already, you must listen before reading the rest of this post. It’s a rule.

This is how long I’ve been on the internet. Since it’s inception. I still never saw that movie. Was he in a dream??

In 2004, I discovered message boards, the precursor to modern social media, and I’ve been producing and consuming digital content ever since.

I have seen trends come and go. I’ve been on the internet so long and so much I’m seeing old memes recirculated. In fact, I remember when the word meme entered our vernacular. It was around the time of I Can Haz Cheezburger in case you’re wondering. I’ve been in the digital world so long I remember when Facebook didn’t have sponsored posts.

I was telling my stories on the internet before storytelling became a marketing tool. It was just regular people sharing their unfiltered, #nonhashtagged stories for no reason other than to tell their stories.

Stay with me, I have a point. And I’m entertaining. Just ask the crowd I spoke to today. Of course, they were all students who were mandated by the state to sit under my tutelage. But still, they loved me! And they impressed me. I love the kids of tomorrow the way Boomers hate people my age and younger. #ElderMillennial

I have seen the digital landscape through many changes. I feel like I’ve lived a few generations due to the rapid advancement in technology and me having been here since the dawn of digital time.

Frankly, it’s one reason I support Pete Buttigieg. Not the only reason. Not a big reason. But one reason is because I think we, The Oregon Trail Generation, are truly the luckiest and most unique generation of all time.

We are the only group who has one foot planted firmly in the analog era, and the other planted firmly in the digital era. We bridge the gap between Boomers/GenXers and Millennials/GenZers. If you’re a Xennial, you are my people.

All this to say, trust me when I give my dire warning:

False narratives are set to destroy America, and we have to fight back against them, hard. Our future depends on it.

What is a false narrative, you ask? According to storymind.com, a false narrative is:

One in which a complete narrative pattern is perceived in a given situation, but it is not an actual narrative at work in the situation. The perception of a false narrative can be due to insufficient or inaccurate information or to insufficient or inaccurate assessment. The creation of a false narrative can be due to naturally occurring narrative patterns, transient contextual framing, inadvertent presentation or intentional deception.

In an age where clicks equal currency, the mainstream media, along with independent journalists and rabble rousers often choose to chase the stories that lead to the most traffic on their sites. Unfortunately for the American people, this means false narratives are put out due to transient contextual framing, inadvertent presentation or intentional deception more often than average media consumers realize. And we have to educate ourselves on this because the media machine is not going to change. I say this as someone who values a free press and doesn’t think “the media” is necessarily the enemy. But the left-wing is at risk of becoming duped the way Fox News intentionally misleads their viewers, and we have to stop it before it’s too late.

The rise in false narratives swirling the internet about Pete Buttigieg, the Millennial Midwestern Mayor who is on a path to becoming the democratic frontrunner, is dangerous to all of us. Pete is not the only candidate who has to content with false narratives, but in the last couple weeks, a new, outrageous claim gets pushed through the noise daily and suddenly, the first openly gay candidate is racist, a corporate hack, and despite the fact that he is the most open and available to the media, people are questioning his integrity because he doesn’t allow press into privately held fundraisers. Never mind the fact that there are videos of every one if you care to look. He has been speaking to progressive values since 2003.

When I sat down to write this article, my point was to dispel some of the false narratives being pushed about Pete, but it’s more than that. Because he’s my candidate, I of course pay attention to and get frustrated with the ones coming at him, I know they exist around all the dem nominees. Which made me realize the problem is bigger than Pete, and much more alarming than I thought.

If you consider yourself at all progressive/liberal, you have an obligation to your values to not spread false or misleading information. Otherwise you are part of the problem, and you begin to look more and more like the alternative facts coming from the current administration and it’s supporters. Your policies are better than theirs, yes, but if your tactics include spreading or creating false narratives, you are just as corrosive to the country as they are.

I want to believe that part the reason it is happening so much is because many of us are unfamiliar with false narratives. Because knowledge is power, I’ve included a list of resources to help get you started on your research:

Do you want to know more about what a false narrative even is? Read this post.

This article is a good reminder to use your critical thinking skills to protect yourself against false narratives. Here’s an excerpt:

And if you want more info on the topic, this Erin Brown Conroy article was a sobering read. She writes this about false narratives:

They feel real. We treat them as real. We call them real. And we don’t check for any other reality (true reality, not our created reality) because we’ve closed that door — it’s a done deal. We’ve turned the page and moved on to a new part of the story.

In her article, she’s talking about false narratives we create based on incomplete information, but her assessment is applicable in our consumption of intentionally created false narratives.

I don’t have time to read The Power of False Narrative in its entirety, but so far it seems worth checking out.

I sincerely hope, no matter who you support, you will do your best to gain information objectively and not fall for, and certainly not help create false narratives about Democratic candidates during the primaries. The GOP will be using them for whoever the nominee is, so we have to work together to dispel them now. Please use the resources above and common sense before you spread misinformation.

Thank you for coming to my page and giving me your click.