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Wiki Tutorial

## Agnotology and Epistemological Fragmentation

In “Agnotology and Epistemological Fragmentation” by Danah Boyd it makes the comparison between ignorance and the spread of misinformation. This is compared to a virus, due to its invasive nature of it. The article also brings up the idea of ignorance is strategically manufactured and agnotology is a tool of oppression, specifically by people in power. This relates to another point discussed which is how social media platforms need to improve their content management. People have been feeling a sense of being gaslit, due to posts on social media. She brings up the example of the Christchurch shooting where terrorists understood the vulnerabilities of social media and traditional media outlets. The terrorists were able to post links to his manifesto, highlighting some of the issues with social media. On his platform, he continues to post explicit comments about his white nationalism. The article highlights this as agnotology at work. Currently, this is an example of what is at stake. It is more than hate vs. free speech, it is intentionally seeding doubt to fragment society. 
	
This negatively affects this generation's youth. It starts without them realizing by simply watching youtube videos about a topic they are learning about. By diving deeper into these topics you can start seeing videos by radicals and the direction of the media can subtly change. A quote that sticks out is “ One of the best ways to seed agnotology is to make sure doubtful and conspiratorial content is easier to reach than scientific material”. This is powerful because it is very realistic, kids can easily access so much information through social media, but no one is actively checking the nature of it. Marketers can use Youtube’s algorithm to show a video to the audience they want, but media manipulators can use the same tools in their favor. It is important to give the public tools that help them decipher if the information they are seeing is manipulated or genuine. 



 