Ways That We Are Wrong: Informational Vulnerability in the Digital Age

This paper is a theoretical contribution to an ongoing debate regarding the current predicament of truth and knowledge in the era of digital information overflow. It suggests that instead of an ‘era of post-truth’ in a literal sense, we should talk about a specific period of human informational vulnerability. The paper proposes a scheme for analysing human cognitive patterns that emerge when facing the confusing and murky reality of information flows. The proposed model is demonstrated analysing the main characteristics of conspiratorial narratives and ways in which the above-mentioned cognitive patterns interact with these narratives. As a result, the paper achieves two things: first, it presents informational vulnerability as a normal and natural human process, and second, it introduces a systematic approach for analysing it and interpreting public narratives.