Discernment in the Information Age

I have been giving a lot of thought to the practice of “discernment” the last while. We live in the “information age.” Each of us has at our fingertips more information in a day than our grandparents had in their entire life. The trouble with information is it isn’t always accurate. Information does not equal knowledge. People can have a wealth of information but, it is just a wealth of information. Information is easily confused with knowledge, expertise, or skill. Researchers at MIT studied 126,000 news stories tweeted 3 million times from 2006 – 2017. The researchers discovered that “false news” or misinformation traveled 6 times faster than truthful news or accurate information. Accurate news rarely reached more than 1,000 people. False news or misinformation regularly reached 1,000 to 100,000 people. One reason for the speed of misinformation is people’s desire to be “first” with novel information researchers concluded. People want to be “in the know” sooner than others and often are rewarded by people’s likes and retweets. “It’s easier to be novel and surprising when you’re not bound by reality,” commented Deb Roy of MIT. Frequently fake news and misinformation is “spicier” than accurate news and information. Unfortunately, unsensationalized news doesn’t spread very fast. Paul told the followers of Jesus that Satan is “the commander of the powers in the unseen world,” and “He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.” Ephesians 2:2 (NLT) Jesus told his disciples that Satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 (NLT) Knowing that Satan is the father and perpetrator of lies, the people of God should be the most cautious of all when swallowing information and passing it on. We are instructed to sift through everything, keeping what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Philippians 4:8 (NLT) Discernment is to be the believer’s way of life! “Be on guard.” “Test everything.” “Cling to what is good.” (1 Corinthians 16:13; 1Thessalonians 5:21; Romans 12:8) That includes what I just wrote!