By Lutfi Dervishi
The concern about “charlatans” in the media is right, provided that by media we no longer mean newspaper, television, radio, book or magazine…, i.e. traditional media.
The door of this era began to close 20 years ago with the birth of Facebook and is being nailed today in the era of TikTok.
We are now living in a time when information is not produced and filtered only by “professionals” of the media, journalists and commentators, but by everyone, since today all people are reporters themselves.
It is the time when a politician is the media because he communicates directly with his “audience” on social networks.
It is the time when a businessman is the media itself even though there is no television, newspaper or radio.
It’s time when a showman/girl is the media itself without having to be a journalist.
It’s time when a cracker is the media itself because it makes you think on TikTok…
It is time when a charlatan is the media itself, even the big media because it has more audience than all the “intellectuals” put together.
It is the time when anyone, with a cell phone in hand, becomes the media, producing and distributing information.
It is the time of cacophony where reason competes with stupidity, where truth collides with lies, propaganda with information, misinformation with misinformation,
It is a time when lies and propaganda are not only spread, but also celebrated,
It is the time when privacy is not only not protected, but fought as a thing of fashion.
It is the time when the absurd becomes normal and vice versa.
It is the time when the unimaginable becomes inevitable, and the unimaginable becomes routine.
It is the time when the acceptable is pushed and pushed to reach the realm of the ridiculous.
It’s the age of social media where reality is built and destroyed like a sandcastle.
It’s time when anyone who can stutter gets to declare himself an authority on the truth.
It is the time when the doctor with a degree is neglected and the “influencer” is listened to.
It’s time when knowledge is measured by followers, likes and comments and not by facts.
It’s time when propaganda is oxygen.
It’s the time when it’s easier to believe a lie than the gospel.
It’s the time when we cry, weep, curse, kiss, break up, unite and report simultaneously in real time.
It is the time when the online world is filled with “information” that at best distorts our perception of reality and at worst, endangers human life.
It is time to tell the big truth that from the use of social networks – we also have victims.
It is the time when the biggest battle is for attention.
It’s the time of the smartphone battle in the trenches of which everyone from the age of 7 to 77 has lined up.
It is time that more than nicotine and hashish, children/youth are addicted to the drug of social networks.
It is the time when charlatans are not only welcomed, but the red carpet is rolled out for them.
It’s time when misinformation and alienation have become a business model.
It is the time when we speak Albanian and do not understand Albanian.
It’s the time when the truth is drowned in the sea of propaganda, lies, deception and stupidity waiting for a like, share and comment to get out of oblivion.
It’s time to endlessly sail the digital ocean to arrive exhausted where you were.
It is time to understand that social networks were born with the idea of bringing people together and now they are fighting each other.
It’s time to understand that social networks bring those who are far away and distance those who are close to you!
It is the time of the new world, when the architects are not the people, but the algorithms that pull the threads of our attention.
It’s time when these “invisible forces” curate our digital diet, feeding us an uninterrupted stream that always keeps us hungry not to inform and educate us, but to keep us hooked….
It’s time to ask ourselves: are we going to look up from our mobile phone and see reality or is it already too late and we have ended up in the digital abyss.
It’s time when it’s enough to have Wireless to be media and crazy at the same time to understand and live with the madness.
