People read what they already agree with. Mostly. Very few ever attempt the far more strenuous task of wringing reality out of a newsfeed. In fact, the newsfeed — and social media as a whole — may be the worst possible place to go looking for anything resembling reality. If you are merely a reader, passively scrolling and nodding along, you will never find what you actually need.
Because let’s be honest: there is no such thing as unfiltered truth. Almost everyone distorts reality in one way or another. Media does it because media exists to make money, and one should never be foolish enough to stand between a corporation and its profit targets. But the same impulse runs straight through individuals. We have jobs to protect, projects to push, careers to cultivate. We want funding, approval, continuity. Above all, we want to blend in. None of this is imaginary. It is all very real, and it all bends perception just enough to stay comfortable.
If social media platforms were to suddenly revert to total, unmasked, unvarnished truth, they would be out of business in record time. Not because people are stupid, but because reality is abrasive, ugly, and emotionally expensive to process. It offers little reassurance and even less validation. Reality does not soothe. It does not flatter. It does not care.Consuming reality requires a particular toughness of mind — the ability to endure discomfort without immediately anesthetizing it with outrage, affirmation, or distraction. That capacity is rare. Exceptionally rare. No study is required to know this. The evidence scrolls past us every day.