## My personal experience with agnotogy and the Christchurch tragedy I was one of the unlucky souls that had to witness the raw video of the terrorist attack itself. When I heard of the attack, I went scrolling through instagram looking for more information (now I know what a terrible mistake that had been) and came across the raw video. I was truly traumatized by what I witnessed and cried for about 15 minutes straight before rushing to my mother for consolance. Her exact words when I told her what happened were "You just can't go looking for stuff like that." ## The meaning of "agnotology" According to the reading, agnotology occurs when people purposefully post information that feeds the public with ideas that are false, ignorant, or work *against* society in some way. In my mind, I couldn't help but disagree with her advice. Was I wrong in wanting to be informed or had I just gone to the wrong platform to seek information? How could anyone want to disregard the fact that the tragedy had happened? What does that say about the nature of our society if we are able to? As a young person, being fed useful and credible information is important to me. It is crucial to how I view our world. Without the resources to do so, I don't think I am elligible to speak my opinions online. ## Agnotology in climate change The article listed "climate change" as a phrase that was "created to achieve epistemological fragmentation". Later on, it says that this strategy is used to "seed doubt". I was intrigued by this concept and applied it to my every day life, in which I ponder why activism against climate change seems to be limited. I do, however, see posts regarding Trump's ignorancy on the matter pretty often. ![](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--NjnPcz0_--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/o5sfnzhq17midbm43obd.jpg) <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yqgMECkW3Ak" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>