It’s the 1940s and ‘50s, and McCarthyism has a grappling latch on a post-war, highly vulnerable American society. Neighbors, friends and family members turn against each other in the pursuit of the “truth” amid rising foreign tensions. Kindergarteners participate in nuclear bomb drills, immigrants are ostracized and most claim to know the “truth”—that their opinion is superior. Taking sides has become a requirement by society; most feel stuck in the middle, unrepresented by the people who are taking positions of leadership. Through extreme polarization of society, driven by the agendas of the wealthy elite, demonization of the opposing side evolves into a narrative portraying dissent as a cult that wants to completely destroy American values. 

Sound familiar?

Anti-intellectualism is a phenomenon marked by general mistrust in academia and, by extension, critical thinking, because of generalized beliefs about the elitist nature of academic institutions. In a digital age, this mistrust is no longer confined to institutions themselves but is increasingly mediated by online platforms that repackage knowledge as aesthetics and entertainment.

This, in turn, causes many to believe that such places of study fail to be applicable to real-world circumstances. The concept stems from a public detachment from educational institutions and represents an overall lack of accessibility to knowledge—perhaps an indicator of the historical breach between those involved at the forefront of innovation, and the rest of society. Methods such as highly technical industry-specific jargon, soaring costs of higher education and unequal access to new innovations all contribute to the perception of academia as secluded from daily life.

Historically, this is merely a symptom of a plutocracy: a system in which a wealthy minority shapes public opinion through an oversized influence. Yet today, the consequences of this system extend far beyond social class dynamics. When society loses trust in shared facts, truth becomes fluid, shaped less by evidence and more by power and personal belief. Without a common trust in knowledge, personal opinion can replace factual information—contributing to confusion instead of understanding.

In this era, the perpetrator of such a system appears as one of the most accessible tools on the planet: digital media.

“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Algorithmic amplification is the process by which digital media algorithms cater directly to users’ existing opinions, reinforcing those views based on demographic data and amplifying the beliefs they hold to the extremity. As reported by a previous Granite Bay Today article, search engines and social media predict your belief system based on demographics, ultimately creating an echo chamber of thought. The result is not a broadened perspective of the world, but rather an ideological bubble—populations thinking they know the full story without clicking out of the imaginary TikTok world they vicariously live through.

Such environments encourage pseudo-intellectualism, a performance of intellectualism rather than emphasis on substance of thought and pursuit of a higher understanding of the world. Social media rewards the appearance of being informed through aesthetics, signaling and surface-level references. One’s identity is now defined by their Instagram feed.

Through the regurgitation of online information within social media echo chambers to appear knowledgeable, users ultimately benefit the minority that controls digital infrastructure. Algorithms are designed to reward extremity rather than nuance, as polarization drives up clicks. Opinion solidifies, curiosity erodes and individuals adopt beliefs handed to them on a silver platter rather than the conclusions they arrive at independently.

Trends such as the “Disgustingly Educated” woman aesthetic illustrate this phenomenon clearly. Books function as visual props as opposed to passages of curiosity. Performative intellect causes harm overall because it values the aesthetics and idea of being someone unique over the difficult path of the lifelong learning.

Similarly, BookTok (a genre of TikTok videos popularizing and showcasing books), in its effort to encourage intellectual thought, ends up promoting novels with excessive sexual content and overly shallow plotlines. This further encourages the large dopamine hits we crave from media; which equates to society being highly susceptible to misinformation. Pornography, drug and alcohol addictions function through a similar cycle of  “hits,” which is why erotic content in media and everyday culture is growing in popularity.

Congratulations! You made it to the end of this article. Did you know that only 10% of original readers stay until this point? As audiences consume 15-second clips for hours on end, our attention spans have gradually shortened to accommodate. Our inability, or rather unwillingness to pay attention for longer than this just serves as another deterrent to pursuing deep intellectual thought.

To combat the epidemic of anti-intellectualism, consider mindful consumption of media when engaging with knowledge:

• Become re-invested in long-form content. Choose a documentary, book, film, news article or long-form video essay on YouTube about your interests.
• Interact with knowledge first-hand. Instead of scrolling and consuming media by default during downtime, spend your hours creating. Learn an instrument, write in a journal, speak a language, cook a recipe, invest in your personal health, spend time with your loved ones or participate in craft making.
• See beyond the algorithm. In instances where a shocking headline is given to you, rely on research papers and primary accounts of what happened. Scroll beyond the AI overview on Google and consider reading a real research paper from credible sources.