The influence of social media
I never really understood the power of social media till recently. Perhaps it would be easier to recount this using a parable.
Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled over his land with an iron justice. He administered his laws with much efficiency and some people say without compassion. Of the many rules he set, one created the most unhappiness. He decreed that all citizens were to store away a portion of their annual grain harvest with the king, disallowing them from consuming everything.
The king had legitimate motives for making such a law, wanting his citizens to set aside some grain so that whether in periods of floods or droughts, they would always have food.
However being human who are somehow programmed to live for the present, many of them do not understand the king’s intentions, especially since it sometimes meant that the poorer citizens might have to go hungry. And so this gave rise to an underground movement led by the trolls to overthrow the king.
The trolls didn’t really care for the welfare of the citizens. They were just unhappy to be led by one person which meant being governed by one set of rules. They clamoured for greater liberty so that they could make their own rules, live life the way they want without ever considering if the person next to them could be responsible enough to take care of themselves.
The trolls devised a plan to make every citizen unhappy with the king and create doubts on his integrity so that this would result in a revolt and toppling of his rule.
One day, one of the king’s advisors decided that it might be good for change to explain the reasons for storing the grain as a way to help the people understand the rule.
The advisor decided that it might be smart to put up a notice sharing how the king has actually been planting the grain to grow even more grain. And by replanting them instead of immediately consuming it, over time the king’s stores would be full enough to ensure that his citizens would always have enough food regardless of rain or drought.
She thought that using an illustration that showed how one grain of rice can fill the stores of the kingdom over time would convey the idea more strongly.
The trolls saw this notice and decided that it was the opportune moment to take advantage of the citizen’s ignorance to create dissent. They ridiculed the king publicly for stating that it was possible for a grain of rice to do that, failing to share the key message of the notice.
The rest of the citizenry thought that the king was making a mockery of his unpopular rule and without finding out the truth about it decided to share the information among their friends who too spread the news amongst their network.
It didn’t take long for these murmurings to reach the king’s ears. He was displeased that he was being mocked and demanded a clarification. Her fellow advisors also chastised her for using such an illustration which seemed so misleading.
The advisor explained her intentions was meant to use an exaggerated illustration to catch the attention and imagination of the citizens who would usually otherwise be indifferent to what the king had to say. Unfortunately, it had caught the imagination of the trolls instead who spun the story out of context.
The king told the advisor to remove the notice so as not to create even more unhappiness. In the end, the trolls succeeded in seeding greater unhappiness among citizens against the king while the advisor was chided for trying to be too smart.
What did the advisor learn from this incident?
- Most people are unimaginative. They cannot appreciate abstract information so sometimes it is best to just say it as it is. In fact, being too creative only leave greater room for the trolls to spin it out of context especially for matters which are inherently unpopular.
- In addition to seeding unhappiness, trolls thrive on attention. And the best way to get it is to keep repeating the story to the next person who passes by. It doesn’t matter how many times it is said, what matters is how many different people are being told.