Connected, or rather hyperconnected. Always, everywhere and anyway. It seems to have become a necessity rather than a convenience or perhaps it is a… perversion. Anyone who persists in thinking on their own finds themselves in a problematic bubble, made up of a thousand questions. The Syracuse journalist Aldo Mantineo tries to answer these with his latest book «Stop scroll. How to survive social media, AI and fake news” (Keyrayles publishing house). «In an era dominated by the algorithm and the uninterrupted flow of content – says the author – compulsive scrolling has become the daily habit of millions of people». I asked Mantineo, to whom I share a shared career in this newspaper, some “necessary” questions.
Let’s start from… the end. That is, from a sentence you wrote in the last part: «Remaining human within the digital». It doesn’t seem easy.
«We are struggling to understand in which direction artificial intelligence models are going, to interpret the alarms raised by those who work on agentic AI (the one that “thinks” in a more autonomous way) about the danger of a loss of control on the part of man: we would perhaps be better off concentrating on the recovery of that extraordinary and advanced human technology called common sense. The notes that I have tried to organize in this work start from and arrive at that “remaining human within the digital” which I do not see as an impossible mission but as a goal which is at the same time a method. Digital squares, social media, are beautiful and fascinating but we need to know them better to frequent them with awareness and responsibility.”
Propose topics one more interesting than the other. We will only be able to touch on a few of them. For example, the concept of responsibility which seems to disappear on the web.
«It’s a raw nerve. We often forget a couple of fundamental principles: on the internet we are never alone, the internet preserves everything and puts us in a sort of constant connection with a potentially huge audience that has its own observation point that does not always (indeed, hardly) coincide with ours. Therefore, alongside the concept of responsibility, there is that of digital reputation, which each of us must build day by day and which is also fueled by the sensations, judgments and evaluations of those who read or follow us. Before posting, commenting, sharing, let’s stop for a moment: does this thought really reflect me? If I reread this text, if I saw this image in twenty years would I feel uncomfortable? Being good at the net is not sprinting, it’s better to have the pace of a middle-distance runner who balances his strength to get to the finish line well.”
Cyberbullying is a very serious phenomenon. How do you fight?
«If I were to measure the level of awareness of this hateful phenomenon only on the basis of the quantity of courses, meetings, seminars and thematic observatories, I could conclude that it is something well known. But it would be an unhelpful indicator: alongside widespread (but superficial) knowledge I don’t see the necessary attention. To persist in declassifying acts that are truly deviant behaviors as nonsense, amplified by that sense of almost substantial impunity that the internet seems to some to guarantee, is the most dangerous underestimation possible. On paper there is a solid alliance between family, school and educational agencies, but every episode that comes to light (and many remain in the shadows) tells us that this bond needs to be strengthened. At every level.”
The discussion shifts to the role of parents who are often a bad example…
«Our children, our grandchildren look at us, observe us. They learn more from what we do than from what we say. This is nothing new but it is even more true in this digital everyday life. Giving a child rules and pre-established time limits for using the smartphone is not difficult, but it will be of little use if instead of paying attention to him we prefer to scroll or check emails.”
It is necessary to talk about fake news. Can you explain to us how they are born and the damage they do?
«Fake news is not just news made up from scratch. Those are easier to recognize. The problem is when you mix true facts and plausible scenarios, you deprive one fact of its context or “construct” another, you connect two true facts creating non-existent connections. Thus the disinformation machine runs and fake news, contagiously, makes its way. Remedies? Timely verification, first of all; the use of reliable sources; take the right time to analyze content before sharing or commenting on it. If the key to social media is the speed with which we scroll through the reels, the best way to navigate with a minimum of safety is to slow down the pace. And don’t give up asking questions: who is saying this? where was it written?”.
Algorithms influence our “navigation”, how can we “deceive” them?
«Online we follow a route that we trace, or rather it is traced by the algorithm that “reads” us. If I stop a little longer than usual to look at car sites, on average we remain on a screen for about a second, others of the same nature will be proposed to me, because the stop is interpreted as a signal of interest in that topic. Misdirecting the algorithm, therefore, is not difficult: it will be enough to look a little more at posts relating to topics that normally do not attract our attention to quickly observe how the meaning of navigation will change. For a while we won’t see the contents that were previously insistently proposed to us.”