There have been some unexpected positive impacts of the COVOD-19 pandemic. Pollution is down, the skies are clearer, we’re hearing the sounds of birds in our cities once again. There were also social media posts that spoke about dolphins and swans returning to the canals of Venice after ages – because the entire country is in lockdown. The earth is healing said social media posts and we believed this – because we wanted to believe. Such feel-good news can only be good for us – even if it isn't strictly true, right?
Kaveri Ganapathy Ahuja tweeted this series of pictures that went wildly viral, with over a million likes and 282K retweets. Other similar tweets that spoke about dolphins ‘returning’ to canals of Venice went viral as well. Such images and videos were circulating with the caption “Nature just hit the reset button on us.” Another cute story about drunken elephants sleeping it off in a tea garden also went viral; delighting millions.
It is obvious that in these uncertain, scary times where are our entire lives are ruled by a tiny, invisible virus, we love a bit of good news. If there is any positive fallout of the forced isolation, the self-imposed restrictions on our lives, we want to know about it. That way, our ‘sacrifices’ such as they are, will not have been in vain.
There is in fact a lot of news to show that humans staying largely indoors and less human activity, in general, have been good for us all. The noise and air pollution levels have fallen palpably. There are reports to show that NO2 concentrations in areas of North Italy have in fact fallen and if the current trend continues, this could help mitigate the impact of human activity on climate change.
As this report shows, there have been very real and significant changes noted in Venice; a city that is usually heaving with tourist activity. So the essence of the original tweet is not inaccurate. There are several positive outcomes of people self-quarantining themselves and governments enforcing lockdowns.
However, nuance becomes important here. Replies to those feel-good tweets set the record straight. One woman replied to Ahuja’s tweet by pointing out that the picture of the swans was from her hometown of Burano; that swans have lived in that lagoon for 20 years. Others also pointed out that dolphins were spotted in other places, but not in Venice. The earlier story about drunk elephants was also found to be untrue.
So the question is, how does this harm us? These stories are partly accurate and surely they are harmless if they make us feel good on a glum day. Here is the problem with this: those who create these posts are often encouraged to garnish a little, exaggerate a bit – for those all-important likes and shares. Studies show that those likes and shares of one's social media post help to boost self-esteem. So a person such as a social influencer; such as Ahuja creates a tweet that isn't wholly accurate and then stands by it. She validates the original post by adding tweets that support her original hypothesis.
Clearly Ahuja and others who share such feel-good-not-wholly-accurate news believe that they are doing something positive; that there can be no harm in spreading positive news. However, this is not harmless. A recent Pew study found that about 48% of Americans have been exposed to some or other type of fake news relating to the coronavirus pandemic. While some of that news may be benign, much of it may be really harmful. For instance, the various conspiracy theories floating around, about this virus being a part of Chinese biological warfare have resulted in racist slurs being cast at South Asians and a boycott of their businesses in many different places.
But surely good news cannot be bad – even if it is a bit fake? Well, that is also bad in the sort of situation that we find ourselves in right now. If we think that the earth is somehow healing as a result of the pandemic, we will view the virus as being less dangerous and more benign than it actually is. False hope is a dangerous thing in this current scenario. It lulls us into a false sense of security and could result in us making unwise decisions.
For instance, there were a lot of messages circulating about the government’s ‘masterstroke’ asking for the 14-hour #JantaCurfew, because, it was alleged, the life cycle of the virus is only 12 hours. By preventing contact for 14 hours, the cycle would be broken and the virus would become inactive, it was claimed. This is of course, patently false as fact-checkers have shown. It is easy to see, how, believing in such fake 'good' news can have possibly catastrophic consequences.
So as you sift through the deluge of information flooding your social media pause a bit – think before you believe. Most certainly think ten times before you forward anything - even if you feel it will make the receiver feel nice.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
