A catasthrophe incoming

In a year where fake news, bigotry, discrimination and information overload was the rule we shouldn't expect 2018 to be different. As my interest in how journalism is made increased this year I learned how this is one of the most complicated years to report news, or in general to do anything related with journalism, publishing an opinion piece, would immediately be fact checked but no with the good intentions of let everyone knows the misconceptions that the author and respective editors may have slipped but the main purpose is to discredit entirely those publications. I hate to admit it but maybe (because I am still not completely convinced) social media may have an influence in this years election for president in my home country (Colombia), my skepticism is mostly based on the more than stated fact that older people (< 45 years old) are the ones who really go out and vote, Jaime Garzon's message to young adults to take the control of the country because if they don't nobody else would fix the country never got listened to because it has been 20 years and electoral abstention  is only increasing, is ironic how much young people like me complain a lot about the goverment and do not go out to vote, being that is one of the most important (and a really easy) mechanism to change (for better hopefuly) the things in the country. Getting back to the social media issue, it worries me (a lot) how useless Whatsapp chain messages are not detected as what they truly are, a scam to influence you through your feelings (to be clear I am referring specifically to those messages which have the intended goal to influence you politically), part of our Colombian (furthermore Latin American) idiosyncrasy is that anger motivates us more than any other kind of feelings that we may have, it is easier to convince a stranger to do something by using hatred as leverage than using common (and loable) interests. Recently I have been reading a lot about Facebook's efforts to make its website a less toxic place, Mark Zuckerberg said himself that his goal for 2018 was to transform the platform he created to its original intention of bringing us closer to our friends and families (hey, I completely agree and support the idea, but that should not be something he will do because he set it as a resolution goal, he should be doing it because it is his freaking job). Also, I had the opportunity to read a lot about Instagram and its impact on people on social aspects and even health. It seems according to various studies that Instagram is the least toxic social media and potentially one that could even make you happy, one New York Times writer made a list of several changes Facebook could do and learn from Instagram (let's remember that both companies have the same owner), the first advice he gives it's to focus on visual content and deemphasize on text, sadly I have to agree, there are more happiness and joy in seeing pictures of stunning landscapes that your friends visited than reading the latest breaking news about the imminent threat of nuclear war. Even though not everything its nice and pretty on the picture based app, some other studies show how Instagram could have the totally opposite effect if you are a passive consumer, in other words, uploading your photos from that trip to Cartagena you did on the weekend will make you happy but just looking at other people amazing life's and adventures could eventually make you bitter and depressed. The previous evidence showing how harmful can be social media for our own personal life, my concern it's the side effects that it can bring to us as a society, not only the example I gave about the influence they can have on the elections but truly the information overload and subsequent laziness to consume news that surpasses a paragraph in length its creating more and more uninformed "expert" opinions, which are really dangerous. It is truly an ingredient in the mix for a catastrophe incoming.