Today I learned an important lesson on fact checking, one we don’t really heed these days. We have a tendency to draw very instantaneous and very wrong conclusions about people we barely know based off of small bits of information. The moment one opinion makes it into a comment section or a conversation it spirals and becomes sensationalized by mob agreement before any homework is done. Soon a narrative is running amuck in response to a phantom attack or a blinkered perspective.
What actually happened? Well, a clip dropped. It was a 3 minute snippet from the popular local podcast “The Byo Podcast.” The episode was set to arrive on YouTube at its usual Monday 11AM drop time, but it came with a peculiar video preview. Usually when that happens something story or, at worst, gossip worthy happened on the episode. The guest was a young lady, an influencer and content creator I won’t name. To summarize, in the clip she appears to boast about not riding public transport, choosing instead to spend $30 on taxis daily. She also demands a whopping $100 a day from whoever she is dating because in her own words, “What is $20” when she changes her hair 3 times a week? There was more, but you get the gist.
The group chat went ablaze with people losing their minds on how entitled this girl was. The Podcast’s promotional page on Instagram was even more scathing. So many people were already making wild conclusions on her intelligence, line of work, and overall character. Debates on pretty privilege were sparked and stoked. I didn’t participate directly but did laugh in agreement at some of the jabs. The opinion of most people, apart from a few loyal '“soft-lifers,” were that this girl was covertly selling her body, couldn’t even afford that lifestyle she was demanding on her own, and looked down on people who couldn’t afford it. It got quite slanderous.
Naturally I took to listening to the full podcast episode as I usually do while preparing my lunch. Boy oh boy were we jumping the gun on this girl. Turns out that she went on to clarify and in some instances recant some of her statements during the conversation just as casual and naturally flowing conversations go. Other points made a lot more sense in context, making the nonsense conclusions we made up embarrassing to say the least. She turned out to be smarter, more frugal, more conservatively moral, and generally way cooler that people initially concluded. The little clip making rounds was thoroughly selling her short.
I understand that lads from the podcast posted the clip to increase views on the episode, but it left quite a stain on her perception. Someone else who changed their mind as I did about this girl mentioned how she probably just needed a PR coach to help her stay ahead of her own narrative when she speaks on other platforms so that her words aren’t misconstrued or twisted. It’s true to an extent given the that her influence over a certain demographic is her core money maker. Then again, that demographic probably supports anything she says ala the modern cult of personality that is influencer culture. Also maybe she was in on it knowing it could bring more eyes to the podcast episode and prove her worth as an influencer. If so, we might have overstated the negative impact of the backlash from the clip.
My question on which ill end, however, is why were we so quick to make so many final statements about someone we didn’t know off of a clip from a video we hadn’t watched in its entirety? Why couldn’t we wait until we knew more? Why can’t we ever wait for the context? In this new culture of unsolicited opinions could we maybe benefit more from just taking a moment and getting the full story before putting so much flack out there? I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely putting my thoughts and opinions on a leash from now on as I move through social spaces. It was just too scary how quickly I convinced myself of a lie that changed my entire impression of a complete stranger.
Begs one to wonder… How many more of our first impressions of people have been warped by unfounded conclusions made from bare scraps of information? What do you think about all this?