Not everything that is faced can be changed;

As promised, some riffs on news consumption (and production, dear colleagues) in a time of misinformation.

The first thing to remember is that if you think you are “too smart” or “too informed” or “too educated” to be taken in by  misinformation or political propaganda — you will be among the first to fall.

The second thing to remember is that you are up against armies of product managers, designers, data scientists, “growth hackers”, and engineers who spend their days and nights churning out ever more sophisticated ways to monopolize your attention and short-circuit your impulse control.

So think hard before you share that thing about which you, personally, know very little but about which you feel strongly. And then don’t share it.

Instead: Save that thing you really want to say or share in your drafts and then come back to it 30 mins later. Set a timer if you want. Introduce deliberate friction into your decisions and skepticism into your reactive instincts.

It is too easy to be a part of the problem, even and especially when your intentions are good and your anger and frustration justifiable. Make those product designers work for your engagement and your attention and your energy. Spend your time on the things that feel slightly harder than the cycle of scroll -> share -> scroll -> share. Frictionlessness is thoughtlessness.

A note on dunking: what you‘re doing, aside from indulging that sweet rush of dopamine and righteousness, is spreading the thing you are purporting to dunk on. Please do not conflate or confuse dunking with debunking. Their forms and functions differ. At a minimum, remove the emotion from the debunk. If you’re gloating, if it’s the kind of thing you hit send on and then immediately feel the need to trumpet in your group chat or on your favorite listserv, it’s much more likely to be a dunk than a debunk.

Bonus recommendation: follow folks like @JaneLytv and @CraigSilverman, both of BuzzFeed News. Whatever your beliefs about BuzzFeed, I know — because I worked there and helped build this infrastructure — just how seriously BuzzFeed News takes the responsibility to be a good actor in breaking news and low-information high-stakes environments. 

A version of this first appeared as a stream-of-consciousness Twitter thread.