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In this article, Peter rants about the end of the world and the end of our meaningless lives.
It’s the End of the World
It’s the End of the World
By: Peter Easterwood
By: Peter Easterwood
The stereotypical life of an Earthling is working a 9-5 shift at a poor-paying job and then, when the torture is finally over, getting home and scrolling the World Wide Web. Whether it is on Youtube, Instagram, or the horrid site Twitter (aka X), there is a constant reminder that the world we live in is terrible and that our world is coming to an end. The wording can range from scientific speak to hearsay. There is an unnecessary love for dramatic, hyperbolic speak on the Earth’s demise. Of course, with the presidency coming to a close, people everywhere will find a way to correlate that to destruction. Why is that?
The obvious answer is the psychological, boring stuff. The human brain loves attaching itself to tragic news, whether it is warranted or not; even in a perfect mood, the human brain wants to dive deeper into witnessing any interesting, tragic story. The correct term for this is “Doomscrolling”. This use of social media was adapted during the COVID-19 lockdown, when everyone was stuck indoors. Not only was COVID spreading, but so was the misinformation on where this “unknown 5G virus” originated. The University of Melbourne’s Dr. Greg Nyilasy wrote about the pandemic of misinformation that came along with COVID, saying “Misinformation is something that we might expect for any major event that captures people’s imagination, but in the case of COVID-19, the spread of fake news offers unique challenges and dangers to the public.” Fake news fuels the fire of redundant fear of the world we live in, but so does basic “factual” news.
Photo from: Colorado School of Mines
It seems that any time the news section on Google is visited, it produces article on top of article about the Ukraine war, the controversial history of Trump, or Gaza-- all negative articles. Why is this? Well, of course it is for that constant thirst for the most clicks and the biggest updates or a new revelation regarding these events. The biggest earthshattering story is the P. Diddy allegations that are still, scarily, ongoing. People may ask, what did Sean Diddy do? Please, never talk again. It is worldwide news at this point, with more than a hundred sexual allegations against P. Diddy via The Guardian, but he was out of the public spotlight for nearly a decade or so prior. Yes, he was seen here and there, but not by himself. He was found always with an upcoming pop star, like Justin Bieber, but now he is entirely on everyone’s feed for these dark, depressing, evil allegations that occurred throughout the last three decades.
Photo from: DeviantArt
For the public, there is a persistent obsession with sad stories, like the previously mentioned example of P Diddy, which suddenly came out of nowhere. One of the most trending Youtubers is Mr. Beast/Jimmy (lord have mercy) who, as of late, has also found himself in hot water. The outrageously massive content creator has lost credibility over the grooming allegations of his close friend Kris Tyson, which then proceeded to bring up the toxic work environment Jimmy has brought along with him. BBC writer Tom Gerkin explains the issues of this environment, “Among many redacted pages, the legal document includes allegations that they ‘particularly and collectively suffered’ in an environment that ‘systematically fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism’.” While it is all hearsay, when people visit Mr. Beast’s account, there is a collage of comments and suggested videos of these allegations. Again, the same thing pops up: the constant need for views and clicks to make a post on this BIG, famous person’s “dark side”.
Now, is it the “end of the world”? No. Of course not. Not yet, at least. However, it has been documented based on the Pew Research Center that “just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years.” With this rise in social media, reliance will also be a massive rise in hyperbolic statements about our possible demise coming soon and the misinformation of it, as well. As humans should know by now, we need to stop focusing on the negatives of our world or of famous people. Instead, go on a walk, go read something (like past Scroll newspapers) or invest in bitcoin.
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