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The constant availability of seemingly accurate information on the Internet is starting to change the world in more ways than we can readily understand. We know exactly how far away something is, exactly who was where and when, how that person got there, and when he or she left. We know the occurrence of events to the second, calories in each bite, and weights to the milligram. We are nearly perfect now.
But a dilemma emerges. The human animal that uses all these precise data is not made to be so perfect. In fact, we are known to be individually and collectively flawed. More than that we are known to lie, stretch the truth, and bend the circumstances of a story to soften the impact of a poor decision or improper conduct. However, every time someone tries to manipulate one of these stories, someone comes up with a Jack Bauer video of the event and proves the disclaiming perpetrator dead wrong.
Get The Cameras Rolling
To combat this dilemma, people are claiming “total transparency” lest we decide they are hiding something (see also Penn State, Herman Cain, et al.). But I’ve seen this backfire as well. The person doing the filming winds up saying, “OK, if this film I shot is not so incriminating, why are you worried about it being ‘out there’”? At the first sign of resistance from the accused, the photographer gets paid, and we have a story with varying degrees of accuracy and, moreover, interpretation. See, even facts need context.