RED Flags

I remember a story from my childhood about an acorn falling on the head of a chicken, who then proceeded to inform everyone “the sky is falling.” As a child in the 50’s and 60’s, the thought was mostly fanciful. Nobody I knew in real life had the time or energy to run around contacting everyone about something they didn’t even clearly understand themselves, and it provided great comedic action to follow Chicken Licken, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey and all the rest as they paraded around spreading something, which the reader knew was not accurate.

As we “fast-forward” to the present day, the rapid dissemination of information, accurate or otherwise is no longer a fantasy in a child’s storybook. The internet has provided what I refer to as RED an acronym for rapid electronic dissemination. Simply put, information travels at the speed of light to millions of destinations around the world. RED is responsible for getting the right medical information to the right destination in time to save a life. RED allows students in one corner of the world to learn from a teacher in another. At the other extreme, RED also ensures that any fool looking for his fifteen minutes of fame will find it.

Unfortunately, however, the real dilemma is neither in the clearly valuable or clearly foolish uses of technology. These are easily identified for what they are. The real challenge lies in the sometimes fine line between whole and half truths. Discerning between factual, and partially factual information is becoming more difficult a task than ever before. Adding to the confusion is the tendency by many to pass along misinformation. When we choose to use technology to dispense our differences of opinion, before we clarify the content or verify its source, the results can be messy, and far-reaching.

With the ever increasing numbers of technologically savvy inspectors comes the potential danger of the RED of ideas based on unfounded assumptions. Technology, as always, is a two-edged sword. The take-away here is to always verify information at the source, before sending it on. And if the information isn’t accurate, don’t pass it on.