Recently I discovered that there has been a conspiracy theory in the internet that the Earth is flat and not round. This group is called “Flat – Earthers” and it for me it is crazy to believe the great amount of people that believe in this theory.
The theory is not new, “Samuel Rowbotham came up with with a variety of creative interpretations of cosmology in the mid-1800” in this time it was uncertain for people to believe whether or not the earth was flat or round and most of the people believed it was flat but in the modern area there is proof, satellite proof, pictures from space, well studied astronomers and astrophysicists that can prove anyone wrong about the earth being flat but as always their is uncertainty and plus the internet is more powerful than we think.
Photo by João Silas on Unsplash
The Power of Social Media
In today’s society this conspiracy theory comes from social media, specially twitter. Celebrities such as B.O.B posted his believe on twitter saying things like “where is the curve?” or “the horizon is always eye level” this type of comment have increased the popularity of “Flat- Earthers” it started as a joke but then people started debating on Twitter and/or Reddit (A free-speech subreddit for the debate of the flat earth hypothesis.)
A person commented on this subreddit and said that “not everybody else believes on the lies NASA tells to the people” this can mean that most “Flat Earthers” do not believe in government organizations and “Flat Earthers” use the excuse of how the government hides everything from the public and lies about everything to convince or create uncertainty on people so that they too believe that their is a possibility of the earth being flat.
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How Internet Conspiracy Theories Go Viral
“Conspiracy theories are nothing new to the human imagination, of course, but the speed and ubiquity of Twitter and other social media platforms provide fertile ground for alternative narratives – especially for violent events.”
In my opinion I believe that the earth is round and for me this conspiracy theory has been just a joke created by a troll. Technology has advanced too much, we have satellites going around earth that can take pictures from space, there is actual proof of the earth being round. This debate began on Twitter and for me it is the most untrustworthy source for news or any type of information.
Everybody Lies
In the book Everybody lies there is an interesting quote that goes with this subject; “The internet gives us a virtually unlimited number of options from which we can consume the news, I can read whatever I want.” (Pg.140) this quote is an ugly truth about social media, we tend to believe whatever there is on the internet since there is infinite amount of information out there, it is crazy. No wonder why we believe on a bunch of conspiracy theories. This explains it.
The internet and social media plays a big part on conspiracy theories now a days because millions of people are connected and separated into groups depending of their beliefs or political views therefore creating lies and sometimes even debating the undebatable. But it is one’s choice of what to believe in and as long as we respect each others views, no matter how crazy the conspiracy theory is, then I think conspiracy theories are not bad after all.
This is who I am 