Instant Expectations

The speed of information travel in modern society is truly remarkable. Since humans are incredibly adaptable, the marvel of that speed has quickly worn off, and it is now just part of what we consider normal. So normal that we quickly feel out of sorts when disconnected from it all, whether it be a "dead spot" or forgetting our phones at home. We expect to be able to get answers to our questions in moments.

That information has to originate somewhere. The vast majority of what we seek is legacy information. It got put on the Net some time in the past, and since the Internet is forever, it's there the moment we look for it. New information, however, doesn't fit that model. Some event occurs, such as the Delta "upside down" plane crash in Toronto, and the chaos of the event and its immediate aftermath means that the details and analyses will take time to generate, and more time to be loaded into cyberspace.

That's a very unsatisfying reality for those who are accustomed to near-instant information. Which is most of us, truth be told. Earlier versions of this form of expectation emerged when cable news first came onto the scene. Whereas, before CNN and its cohorts brought to us endless news, we'd have to wait for either the evening/nightly news or the next day's newspaper to learn about an event, we had available to us a running stream of... I hesitate to call it information, because a lot of it was just filler until information actually became available. So, people would sit and watch, and watch, and watch, waiting for something of substance to finally be shared.

Now, we don't just watch. We search, and we scroll, and we refresh, and we go onto social media and chatter.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and our brains abhor the unknown. Since we are conditioned to expect instant answers, our inclinations are to start speculating when we don't get them.

Sometimes, others will speculate similarly.

Sometimes, others will "validate" our speculations with likes and concurrences.

Sometimes, someone's baseless speculation will bubble through the internet, perhaps in meme form, and we might see it and treat it as information rather than speculation.

Sometimes, all this can vest us in our speculations, and thus make us reluctant to let them go if actual information that undermines them emerges. Humans prefer consistency over correctness, and the first ideas that hit our brains tend to be "sticky."

If actual information is slow to come out, another part of our brains kicks in - again, due to our fear of the unknown. "What are they hiding?" questions materialize for no legitimate reason, distrust of the information provided by investigators emerges, and thoughts veer into the conspiracy lanes.

When actual information does come out, and it's unsatisfying or contradicts an earlier speculation or someone else's meme, the stickiness of our speculations makes us doubt it even when there's no justifiable reason for that doubt.

Ever encounter someone who says "I think X but have no proof for it?" Good luck dislodging that thought, even when you have strong refuting evidence. Best you can expect in the moment is for the thinker to go quiet. Best you can hope for in the long term is that the thinker quietly withdraws from that viewpoint, never mentioning it again. It is rare to hear someone say "boy, did I get that wrong."

The answer for each of us is to slow down. Manage our information expectations, and avoid speculating aimlessly. There's no prize for being first, especially if you just made a lucky guess. Do that, and you'll realize just how much "filler" material is thrown out there, and how little that filler material matters.

Get used to waiting, and get used to not knowing right away, and you will probably reduce your stress and anxiety quite a bit.