The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Miller’s
The Crucible speaks to a society where narrow mindedness and provincial thinking
clouds vision. The Crucible takes place in 1600s where Abigail Williams
accuses multiple women in the town of Salem of witchcraft. The judges in the town
support Abigail for all of her accusations and blindly accept what she says merely
because she says that her word is trustworthy.
Miller’s
book speaks directly to McCarthyism, but the message still holds true today. In
an era of social media, it is all too easy to only listen to what one wants to
hear. Just like how Judge Danforth only saw the evidence to help him find
witches and how McCarthy only saw the evidence to help him find Communists, people can cherry pick the information that supports their point of view. When
Facebook finds news articles that a person might be interested in, it isn’t
looking for the most credible piece of information, it is looking for what the
user wants to see based on previous preferences. Facebook’s current solution
for fighting fake news is to tag questionable pieces in order to provide
context. However, the mere-exposure effect shows that simply reading the
headline plants that seed of false information. Individuals can’t get their news
from just social media. They need to make sure that their news comes from
credible and respected sources to get all types of information, not just the
ones that users are exposed to through their friends.
