My eldest son sends me a flyer he found on Instagram with a list of foods that our dog, Lila, shouldn't eat.

 

My husband tells me about a newspaper article about the benefits of taking magnesium supplements and buys several bottles at Costco. My daughter takes creatine to build muscle and, she thinks, get a curvier figure.

My friend puts patches on her body that relieve all her pain.

My daughter's boyfriend has convinced the whole family to get peptide injections to lose weight.

 

And the list could go on until the end of this page. I imagine you, readers, could add your own examples. Absolute truths that each person prefers to believe and follow like commandments. Because this twenty-first century has changed its gods. Now the new god is called TikTok, Instagram, X, or those two letters that flood every device: AI.

 

My intention with this short article is not to criticize the use of artificial intelligence, nor the reach of social media. My intention

It's more about reflection. Because what I think is lacking, and especially what the younger generation is lacking, is the ability to find information. Before, when I was a student, for example, we had to consult encyclopedias, libraries, and look for information not in one, but in several reliable sources, in order to formulate an opinion, an argument. We trusted doctors, engineers, and historians, since they had studied for years and were experts in their fields.

 

Not anymore, because with a smart device at our fingertips, we can have all the answers. And even that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because the problem isn't accessing information instantly; the problem is the comfortable certainty of having found it and accepting it as if it were the ultimate truth, without investigating further where that information comes from or who it was created for.

 

For example, the list of dog foods my son saw on Instagram might be fine for the poodle of the person who posted that flyer, but not for my chocolate Labrador. Magnesium is certainly an excellent mineral, but it's probably already present in a varied diet. Creatine?

Could what my daughter is ingesting also cause her to lose her appetite?

 

I think the point is clear. And you, dear readers, shouldn't put too much faith in what you're reading, because this text could have been written by artificial intelligence. Or could it?

 

Doubt, doubt everything, because if you doubt, as Descartes said, you still exist.

 

Mercedes Soledad Moresco, Writer, mermoresco@gmail.com , Instagram @mermoresco