Offshore trolls

The improvement in the form and substance of communication from the time Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter invented the first wireless telephone, in 1880, to the invention in 1973 by Martin Cooper of the first hand held cellular phone which transmitted voice signals on a beam of light or a period of almost one century was rather not as expansive as the technological advancement from 1973 to the present or some 50 years. Five decades ago, there were only telephones of the kind which we now call as land line. I do not know if you still remember “party lines”. Those families who could afford that kind of luxury had one phone set in their homes. Comparably speaking, almost everybody presently has a cellphone with him wherever he goes.

That is how communication has evolved. Materially, the cellular phones of about just two decades were huge too cumbersome to carry. The newer model telephone has been designed as compact, lightweight, small and thin as possible even as it can function in many more different ways. By just touching some keys, we can call our friends in the other side of the universe or send pictures to them. Information can be shared in milliseconds and yes information is received almost everywhere. With a cellphone in hand, a tuba gatherer for example while transferring tuba to his “sogong” (bamboo sap container) at the top of a coconut tree can talk with his son aboard an ocean steamer.

Now come social media as a result of the confluence of million cellphones. Social media, by the way, refers to internet-based platforms that enable users to create, share content, and engage in social networking. Content wise, the exchange of information among cellphone owners, many of whom are non-acquaintances of one another, has become so impactful upon users that socio-political environment itself is affected.

I talk about social media because I heard from broadcaster Antonio

Antogop a somewhat alarming news. He said that a kind of a watchdog group has discovered that there are more than a thousand cellphone handlers trying to influence public opinion. What alarmed me was that according to Mr. Antogop, these cellphone users are based in China and they are trolls. Additionally, the internet defined a troll as a person who intentionally posts inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments online to provoke emotional reactions or disrupt conversations and these trolls noticeably beam their podcasts toward our countrymen.

Mr. Antogop hinted that these trolls are propaganda corp of a political family. They act in one cadence and they flood the public with carefully composed topics designed to drill holes in the perceived bailiwick of the opposing camp.

While I have no reason to doubt the information given by Mr. Antogop, I conducted an unscientific kind of survey. Yesterday, I gave myself one hour to read all FB posts that came my way and I dug deep into the contents. To my shock, Mr. Antogop’s news appeared validated. A bigger percentage of the posts seemed to carry the same line of aggressive propagandizing and sharp satires. Their wordings were not exactly identical but the thoughts sounded as if orchestrated. If we are not discerning, we will soon be buried under the avalanche of false information.