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Why do reasonable people believe unreasonable things on social media that could not possibly be true—like Hilary Clinton running a sex ring out of a pizza shop, or that Donald Trump somehow is still president and operating the country? Why do so many people repeat these lies on social media and what does it cost us?

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D. candidate in information science at the University of Washington iSchool who studies online harassment. She has written extensively about technology and culture and has dabbled in sci-fi writing and tabletop roleplaying design. She regularly contributes to WIRED and is the author of “No, You Can’t ‘Have This’” which shows the terrible cost of little viral lies. She discusses the dangers of social media and the reasons why people believe false information on these platforms.

  • What was the inspiration for the WIRED Magazine article, “No, You Can’t ‘Have This’”?
  • In the article you say: “PLEASE, JUST LET me have this.” It’s what we cry when a too-good-to-be-true viral story is threatened by the too-true-to-be-ignored reality. When we say it (or, more likely, tweet it), we know something’s wrong. It’s like that uncanny moment when we realize we’re about to awake from a wonderful dream.” So why do we keep doing it? Just to feel good?
  • Why do we need social media as a society in the first place?
  • What harm does “Just let me have it” do?
  • You state that this sort of behavior is all part of the “Extremely Online problem, where virality alchemizes everything into the 21st-century version of must-see TV, bleeding it dry of the need for reverence, grief, contemplation, or any emotion that isn’t some kissing cousin of an especially joyless hedonism.” Yuck! Did we always have this need?
  • Is anonymity the root of the problem with social media? What is?
  • You say that “perhaps the biggest danger lies in feeding one of the most terrible delusions of all: That we can shitpost our way to a better world”- Wow! What can social media be used for and what can’t it be used for?
  • Why do we have this illusion that the world is somehow fundamentally just in a karmic way?
  • “Social media accelerates the process by which capitalism co-opts any resistance to it.” What do you mean by this?
  • Why do some people complain about online privacy but then eagerly share stories that invade the privacy of others?
  • Katherine makes her predictions: Will our society overcome the challenges of social media? What will happen?

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