At this moment, we are like Chumen in the film “The World of Chumen”.

Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Zhao Jicheng Channel” (ID: zhaojcpd) , Author: Zhao Jicheng .

If you have fever, fatigue, dry cough, or even a little breathing difficulties, you may be infected with the virus.

If you do n’t have any of the above symptoms, An An is securely isolated at home, but you constantly brush your mobile phone, often in ups and downs in the panic of rumors and rumors, suffering from “information overload”, but like sinking The cocoon room has nowhere to break …

Unfortunately, you may have an “information epidemic.”

01 First global large-scale information panic

On February 28, Luo Hantang invited a number of scholars with interdisciplinary backgrounds to discuss the digital survival in the epidemic. Professor Hu Yong introduced the concept of “infodemic” proposed by the World Health Organization.

The so-called “information epidemic” refers to the excessive amount of information online and offline during the outbreak of the epidemic—some are inaccurate and some are inaccurate, making it difficult for people to find a reliable source and reliability when needed. Guidance.

You can see from this definition:

The “pathology” of information epidemics is information overload, there is too much information online and offline, some are accurate and some are inaccurate;

Symptoms are people who ca n’t find a reliable source and reliable guidance in time;

The “result” that results is a panic of information.

“New crown virus pneumonia may cause the world’s first large-scale information panic.” Professor Hu Yong said that compared to SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, new crown virus caused panic on social media far more than before.

When SARS broke out in China 17 years ago, everyone’s communication tools were mainly mobile phones, text messages, and Internet forums, and social media had not yet detonated. But today, social media has migrated a large number of people to the new platform, false information has spread and flourished at an unprecedented rate, creating a very uncertain environment that has inspired both individuals and groups, whether online or online. Unprecedented anxiety offline.

Evidence from the data:

Quest Mobile data shows that during the Spring Festival in 2019, the average daily active user scale of China Mobile Internet was 840 million, and during the Spring Festival in 2020, this figure reached 850 million, which was 10 million more than the same period last year.

In terms of per capita use of the mobile Internet in Japan, it is more than 5 hours during the Spring Festival in 2019, and it is close to 7 hours during the Spring Festival in 2020. After the Spring Festival in 2020, the number is as high as 7.3 hours.

That is to say, people get rid of sleeping and eating. Almost half of the rest of the time they are using their mobile phones.

Because of the unknown and panic of the virus, people have fallen into unprecedented knowledge and social anxiety, and the use of information, social, and instant messaging apps has exploded.

During the Spring Festival of 2020, the comprehensive information app increased by nearly 60 million compared with the average daily active users before the Spring Festival; the Weibo social app increased by nearly 40 million; and the instant messaging app increased by nearly 30 million.

A set of data published by Analysys Qianfan shows that after the Spring Festival of 2020, the top 10 apps with the highest growth among the daily active users with more than 100 million users are information, social, search and browser. For example, fast hands, Weibo, iQiyi, today’s headlines, Baidu.

As the information exploded, rumors and misinformation also exploded.

Data from DT Finance show that at the 6 time points before January 20th, @ 微 博沛 谣 averages 1.2 rumors every day. But from January 21, the number of rumors began to increase with the news of “people-to-people”, and suddenly broke out on January 25. By January 29, the number of rumors reached its first high, 48. On February 7, the number of rumors hit a new high, reaching 58.

During the epidemic, the main keywords involved in the rumors were: hospitals, masks, vehicles, Hubei, communities, materials, the Red Cross, high-speed, government, and even Academician Zhong Nanshan became hot words for making rumors.

Famous rumors are that garlic, double yellow lotus, and hot water bath can prevent and treat pneumonia; Wuhan Red Club charges Shanghai Medical Team a commission of 6% ~ 8%; Wuhan Red Club sells Shouguang donated vegetables; A family of three in Wuhan has been diagnosed with new crown pneumonia. There is also the most amazing Zhejiang BL0535 license plate, which has been interpreted into different versions.

Facing such overwhelming, true and false information, if the new crown virus hurts the human body and texture, then the “information epidemic” hurts the human spirit and psychology.

02 Mediated Survival: From Hayek to Zuckerberg

So, how do we judge the “information epidemic” and the world’s first large-scale information panic caused by this epidemic?

Return to a traditional concept of “medial survival.” In 1996, the concept of “digital survival” proposed by American scholar Negroponte was actually a “mediaized survival” if observed from the perspective of media.

The American scholar James Porter once made a vivid analogy-“We can understand the influence of the media this way. No matter where we go today, we can’t get rid of the medium, just like we can’t get rid of the weather.”

A medium that ca n’t get rid of like the weather is not all bad, do n’t forget, we were cheering not long ago