Welcoming New Ideas

While the accessibility and abundance of information today can lead to the deterioration of its quality, valuable insights still exist—and we must improve our ability to recognize them.

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We are entering the age of AI before fully understanding how the internet and social media influences us in ways we’re unaware of. The entire world is online by now, using it more everyday as it continuously influences society and evolves with our daily lives in almost every way. But let's not forget, another form of intelligence has just begun sharing the digital realm with us.

Information has never been this bountiful, accessible and instant in the history of humanity. Humans arguably aren't even built to handle the amount of processing our senses pickup daily in the technological era. As people and information become more connected, things also speed up, and navigating the constant flow of inputs is getting increasingly challenging. The question that’s nagging us is as investors, how are we supposed to separate the noise from the valuable insights that give us edge?

Technology has always dictated the flow of information in society, influencing how we process and react to problems. From print and paper to social media today, people worldwide are instantly informed and connected. The advent of the internet enabled rapid idea sharing for the first time and social media was designed to leverage this quality. Marshall McLuhan's idea that "the medium is the message", simply refers to the design of the medium itself—whether it's radio, television, internet or social media— it plays a crucial role in shaping how messages are transmitted, received, and ultimately understood.

Increasingly people see how mainstream news is manipulated to influence how we perceive information and stories. More people have turned to social media to read about news, share it, and spread information themselves. As a byproduct of new communications technologies emerging, mainstream news and investigative journalism have faced severe challenges that have reduced their funding in the wake of internet news platforms and social media creators. Most have adapted to leverage the internet and social media to keep them from bankruptcy, yet in many cases, institutions have turned to sensationalizing headlines and promoting disinformation in their published content in order to survive.

In any case, the quality of news in the public sphere today is deteriorating on all fronts. With internet memes and conspiracy theorists often seen as the class clowns of our society, their role in shaping social issues might be more important than we think. By leveraging emerging technologies to create content and share their ideas in unconventional ways, meme creators and conspiracy theorists are strong cultural symbols, actively employing disruptive methods on social media to raise awareness of unconventional content in our world. With credibility draining out of legacy news media, more people are starting to give an ear to what they receive on their timelines across social media platforms (regardless of its truth and credibility).

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Historically, those in power have been held accountable through public discourse. What’s changed is how we learn about and discuss crisis events. Radio once delivered local news, absorbed privately or with others nearby. Today, social media easily spreads local issues globally. However while it’s powerful for raising awareness, its influence on real decisions and policy is still limited.

Algorithms now control most of what we see. They prioritize short, popular, emotionally charged content over complex or unfamiliar ideas. As a result fresh perspectives rarely reach us, and even when they do, they often fail to persuade in the long run especially when the methods of sharing on social media are constrained by word counts and time limits.

As algorithms get better at figuring out what we like, exposure to new content shrinks. Social justice movements flourish in this environment, using hashtags and viral trends to spread universal, emotional messages. But these movements often prioritize shareability over original thinking.

Viral content wins because it’s simple, emotional, and identity-driven. It doesn’t challenge beliefs - it reinforces them. This structure gathers large audiences quickly, often without deep engagement or personal reflection. Attempts to create social change online frequently spark emotional debates rather than real dialogue. Viral justice content usually reflects generic identity traits rather than personal insight. Its value lies more in generating ad revenue through engagement than sparking change through conversation.

As local issues continue to globalize through social media, the reach of users to actually affect change is declining as the rate of activism increases. Our perception may be that with all the interconnectedness and instant idea sharing technology allowed we should assume that social justice has drastically improved as a result of the awareness garnered on social media. However in reality, our messages on social media inescapably reflect it's tendency to prefer content that produces dollars over change.

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In essence, we don't get to choose the messaging that goes viral, we can only craft the message in specific ways in hopes of it going viral. The medium is the message because it dictates how we communicate social issues in our world today. It's never been more important to understand this dynamic because it changes how we learn about and discuss public discourse.

When users break away from a medium or a technology's intended framework, design, and rules—using it in ways unanticipated by its creators—true revolutionary change can emerge. Conspiracy theorists push social media beyond its intended design, repurposing it as a tool for new forms of activism. While such approaches may not always go viral, it can often lead to a deeper and longer-lasting impact on how people think about issues.

Whether true or not, conspiracy theories draw attention to those controlling resources, laws, and information. They challenge public narratives and craft their unique messages according to the viral structure of social media (eg. By copying the latest trends) to reach new audiences.

To avoid dismissal, conspiracy theorists must present logical, thought-provoking content. If not, real-time feedback on social media through likes and comments encourages corrections to controversial ideas. The unique content and delivery attracts critical engagements rather than allowing misinformation to spread. In the past, conspiracy theorists were safe and protected from instant, global backlash although that’s obviously not the case with social media.

Still, society often sees them as liars and deceivers. Even experts aligned with their unique views popularized on social media often get grouped and labeled the same. To the point where deep research on a tumultuous topic is now mocked as "falling down a rabbit hole," making it seem like the more you know, the less credible you are.

This stigma shuts out those exposing uncomfortable truths. Many valid or revolutionary ideas are ignored simply for being controversial. Meanwhile, viral content driven by profit often polarizes, bypasses fact-checking, and degrades public discourse.

The decline of investigative journalism, legacy media and the rise of social media's popularity has opened space for amateurs and conspiracy theorists to emerge in or dominate serious conversations. With fewer credible experts in journalism and more underqualified voices signing up for social media accounts, misinformation thrives in an open playing field of freely flowing, instant information. Ironically, conspiracy theorists—despite their flaws—are now filling a critical gap.

If societies had always accepted things at face value, humanity might still be stuck in the Stone Age. It’s through critical questioning—sometimes even wild theorizing—that people advance. Our jobs as investors (or financial philosophers) should be to welcome new ideas coming from individual creators’ outlandish theories with neutrality and to listen to the messaging in crazy conspiracy content because it is usually not primarily driven by monetary or personal social gain.

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Concluding thoughts: 

When comparing conspiracy theories to social justice activism on social media, it’s evident that social media movements effectively rally around popular causes, making events and ideas go viral by recirculating messages that speak for themselves to elicit strong emotional responses. Yet in doing so, they often fail to confront the structures and forces that shape those issues. Theirs is a surface-level critique, intended to share a stance based on one’s identity, and to connect with people that share those beliefs and a similar identity. While ‘conspiracy theorists’ are compelled to dig deeper, they're not seeking connection through identity sharing - they seek connection, but by reasoning well and convincing people to consider new ideas. History shows that questioning authority and challenging the status quo is vital for both social and technological progress.

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