48 hours of noise on facebook

I am reading the book A Brief History of Humankind, a profound study of the formation of human cognition and social forms. In the vast chain of knowledge spread out in the book, humanity sometimes appears with a mind of greatness to the point of being stunned, sometimes with an indescribable ignorance and mediocrity. Anyone who still doubts this, just look at Facebook in the past 2 days.

At 8:00 p.m. on April 10, Vietnam time, NASA officially announced the first photo of a black hole in the universe, taken by a system of 8 of the world's most advanced telescopes. For the first time in the history of space science, a black hole has been proven with a more convincing basis, reaffirming all doubts about its existence since the beginning of astrophysics. Capturing an image of a black hole with a halo being sucked in at a location 55 million light years away from Earth perhaps partly speaks to the desire to conquer the infinite as well as the ability to realize it of humans. From here, many new space studies will be opened and have a more solid foundation. The tiny creature on Earth takes another step in its magnificent history of development. On April 10, accessing social networks, many people were elated in a common joy of pride, of knowledge, of beauty and of a bright future.

Less than 48 hours later, while international friends were still talking and sharing about black holes, the keyword “black hole” was still trending in many countries around the world, the light of knowledge civilization was still shining brightly in every corner of social networks, the Vietnamese online community was jumping up and down because of another “black hole”: a sex clip of a hot girl that fell from the sky. People were excited, crazy, rushing to comment, like and share every post with the keyword clip. There were many people who had never heard of black holes 2 days ago, but they definitely could not help but know about the hot clip that had just been released about 2 hours ago. Oh my, what a noisy and chaotic crowd, some were sarcastic, some were laughing, some were seriously analyzing, some were relating to themselves. Even the bright light of civilization must be turned off by the crowd waiting to tear apart a clip recording a couple’s private affair like a flock of vultures swooping down on their prey. On April 12, accessing social networks, many young Vietnamese people felt as if they had been transported back in time to the dark ages, when humans had not yet had a revolution in awareness.

I often think about the crowd - an entity that is too complex and contradictory, especially when it is expressed on social networks. One day the crowd despises a Korean singer for sharing a sex clip in a group chat with friends, the next day the crowd publicly posts something similar, the day before the crowd is still talking about civilization, the next day it is criticizing civilization. I do not know how future researchers will conclude this contradiction in their histories of humans in the golden age of social networks. But I am sure that we will be judged no different from ignorant primitive people if we continue to behave unworthy of the evolutionary quintessence that we can reach, in which civilized behavior is the most basic foundation.