Datuk Seri Dr Shafiq Sit is a Rhodes scholar and investor. He says fact-checking must become a prerequisite for our children to learn and be trained on how to think for themselves.
IN the good old days, we would read books like “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, “The Catcher in the Rye” and “On the Road”, just to name a few. And from our reading, we gained insights on life at certain times in history.
This “long read” to finish a good book helped with better memory retention, greater comprehension of the intrigues in life, and an appreciation for narrative and characters who are intertwined with the plot. Those days are gone it seems, replaced by short-form video content.
I had several young candidates coming for a job interview, and so I handed them technical documents to read. They immediately asked me for a short version.
The dangers of a culture of short-form content is that we are seeing a generation who read less. They tend to form opinions and make decisions based on hyped content rather than critical analysis.
Many people today spend a lot of time watching the short-form video, scrolling content on their devices at breakneck speed. This short-form content is typically algorithm-based, to suit our preferences.
On the one hand, apps like TikTok do entertain and educate. But do these apps encourage critical thinking and analysis?
Content on many of these apps is hyped, with fast-moving images, and can be controversial about issues.
The content does seem tailored to meet the short attention span of the young, but also increasingly that of the rest of the population.
The worry is, are we being fed with content that will lead us to being brainwashed to act, see, read and even dance in a certain fixed way?
In some cases, the most controversial content is uploaded to get views. Often it is about who can splice up the content in the most attractive way, irrespective of whether it is one-sided or biased. Half-truths are taking centre stage.
Some content has created disunity among races. Racial tolerance in our country is still good but the manner in which some users upload content endangers the fabric of our society.
Parents are rightfully calling for short-form content to be better monitored. While the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is taking steps, it needs to ramp it up before generative AI kicks in hard and fast.
If nothing is done, the young who are sucked into this barrage of short video content will not be given a chance to develop critical thinking skills.
Some signs of a pushback can be seen. For example, Florida is banning social media for those aged 14 and below. In Malaysia, censorship needs to creep back in, but hopefully not in an ultra conservative way, but just enough to give our young a fighting chance to enjoy the long read so as to be able to make up their own minds.
Parents cannot just keep blaming the government and should play their role, among others, by encouraging their children the importance of reading good books.
Parents need to evaluate and communicate to their children how such short-form content has a higher risk of misinformation and that that information is driven by the app owners in order to get viewers.
They want the content to be as brief and yet appealing as possible. But we need to understand that that means there will not be enough room for balanced information or analysis. Kids need to know that.
And children need to understand misleading content is often shared without checks, and this leads to false misconceptions and beliefs. How many times have we seen the absurdity bordering to sheer lunacy and the manner in which someone believe that it is so, just because it is viral?
Simply put, the power of short-form content cannot be understated or taken lightly. In this new digital age, it is here to stay to educate, entertain and to confuse. Obfuscation will be a new norm.
Fact-checking must become a prerequisite for our kids to learn and be trained on how to think for themselves.
We need to use the advantages of short-form content in this fast-paced digital world, and balance the desire for quick fix gratification with an appreciation of its limitations and many shortcomings. Only then can the young stand a chance to help humanity progress using the power of their human mind over generative AI. Otherwise, digital dementia will become a chronic ailment.
The ability to decipher what’s real or fake will need a new smarter partnership between the family unit and the role of government. The greatest challenge now is that our politicians should realise that the attention span of our kids keeps shrinking in this ever intense digital world.
For a start, politicians, teachers and community leaders can lead by example by reducing the use of such short-form content to achieve whatever objectives they desire. Now more than ever, at the precipice of generative AI, the ends should no longer justify the means.
This article first appeared in Star Biz7 weekly edition.
