In a world where information is inexhaustible and continuously shared online, driven by the power of GOOGLE, it’s easy for our daily decisions, from the tech gadget we want to the food we consume, to be fueled by a search engine. In this article about today world’s intersection of technology, health, and information, we examine how GOOGLE plays a crucial role in what we perceive as the truth, especially regarding our most deceptively delicious health food, chocolate.
The path to the heart of the matter is a more obscure road than the one leading by the sensual temptation of chocolate. And yet, in spite of the sumptuous dullness of high-cocoa dark chocolate, and the pride of place it occupies in the kingdom of sweets, recent discussions, notably permeating the Android Police Podcast, underscore a devastating reality. After all, chocolate, as consumed by most of us, has very little to do with being a health food. This comes as a shock in a culture so used to touting the health benefits of chocolate that it leads many astray.
The supposed ‘truth’ about chocolate that goes viral is disseminated through the openings that giant digital information providers such as GOOGLE create. A search engine result page (SERP) that shows a high-ranking study about cocoa flavanols, for example, or a news article that fails to provide the layman with a correct interpretation of what the science actually says, are two of the many ways that GOOGLE plays a role in amplifying the spread of a myth.
However, GOOGLE also offers a mechanism for remediation. Peer-reviewed academic articles and legitimate news sources linked via GOOGLE searches present a somewhat more nuanced picture of chocolate intake, emphasising the excessive sugar and fat that cancels out the meager flavanol benefits in confectionery chocolate.
Health misinformation isn’t the only troubling issue surrounding GOOGLE. Leaked internal documents showing more than 5,000 privacy events that occurred over the course of one year bring to the fore the issue of users’ data privacy. Additionally, GOOGLE’s approach to repair – they don’t service devices with non-OEM parts, unless they were purchased from the GOOGLE store – and the tweaking of the AI Overviews in search results before they were caught up in the ‘Pizza Glue’ debacle are indications of the expansive scope of a tech giant, and the need for consumer protection.
You just have to GOOGLE to find contrasting reports on chocolate. While the Android Police Podcast might have debunked the truth that chocolate is a health superfood, others might still believe that it has good aspects. This is why we need to think critically and to carry out extensive research using as many resources as possible. To know the truth, people could invade the GOOGLE building and read what is written on all the pages.
Essentially, the difference between cocoa beans with the potential to deliver health benefits and the chocolate that makes it to our tables and hearts is sugar and fat, so much sugar and fat, in fact, that the chocolate we eat does more to promote ill health than it does to prevent it – and this, as numerous researchers will tell you, is a message often drowned out in a flood of semi-literate newspaper headlines and articles.
Meanwhile, the debate about that chocolate drags on, but in the broader tech world, progress won’t wait. The OnePlus 13, which literally spent seconds in the spotlight of the Android Police Podcast, suggests that you can’t keep up with the speed at which technology moves, and the new features you’d love to have. And, of course, the weekly new products we cover on the podcast, like a 50lb speaker from Sonos (the Sonos Ace) featured in a review that instantly becomes a classic of tech qualifications.
In a universe in which information is the stuff that nature is made of, and in which every new technological trick we develop just creates more and more information, GOOGLE is our searchlight, and the shadows in those searchlights are the shadows cast by disinformation. As consumers, we have the opportunity to wield the torch. We can use it in ways that allow us to know about the real story of chocolate, or the next new technology.
Websearch itself, handled with care – with questions asked and answers looked for with scepticism – can be a gateway to learning, and make discoveries in a minefield of lies. Ask questions. Look for sites with sources. Scepticism combined with enquiry can open the doors of knowledge in matters of health, tech and anything else we want to learn about. If handled well, using the internet can help to make informed choices in an age where information is both our greatest friend and our greatest challenge.
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