While reading It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda. For the first time, I was exposed to the term “Ampliganda.” The idea is something which upon reflection, I can see it occurring almost daily but ‘Wow’ it is crazy to me that the social media we use, has created this. It is crazy the amount of power individuals hold on social media, regardless of whether they are an online nobody or an onscreen celebrity, both have the ability to release information and shape people’s perceptions. I can recall just last week when Kanye West went after Pete Davidson on Superbowl Sunday, which then lead to Kanye West’s family trending more than the Superbowl. Quickly, people’s perceptions changed to be focusing on the Superbowl to now watching the Superbowl while asking “did you see the Kanye West drama that’s trending?” To me, this idea that a simple tweet or post can be blown up to become the number one trending item is crazy. So many people rely on social media for their daily news intake, but they don’t realize how much they play a role in being an active participant in determining what information will be amplified. 

I wonder what effect this will have on society. How will society be affected by relying on social media ‘ampliganda’ to determine their perspective on a topic? How much misinformation will be spread? This idea that truly anything can be spread and then become a trend is quite scary. The fact that people, ones with no following and no authority, have the ability to entirely change a population’s perception of something seems to be the new reality. At this point, anyone holds the power to share an idea and alter people’s viewpoints, whether that’s in a good way, or in a harmful way.