What happens to trust when attention becomes more valuable than the truth?
Social media did not create anger or dishonesty, but it gave those instincts an extraordinarily efficient distribution system. With global news trust at 37% and AI making fakes harder to spot, Booker Loud argues the question is no longer whether platforms influence us but what we choose to let them amplify.
He calls for digital environments where kindness, connection, and constructive disagreement can compete for attention.
We have built an internet space where attention can be more valuable than truth. That decision is beginning to cost us something far more important: trust.
What concerns me is how quickly attention has become its own form of currency.
Digital platforms have given a voice to existing instincts, amplifying them exponentially.
When outrage generates engagement, it travels fast. When sensationalism produces clicks, it gets repeated. When people discover communities that reinforce their existing frustrations, those beliefs can become stronger.
That creates a problem far larger than having an unpleasant experience online. It fosters a trust problem.
We are entering an era when determining what is real online is becoming increasingly difficult.
Artificial intelligence can generate convincing images, video and text. Misleading clips can remove important context. Fabricated stories can be packaged to resemble legitimate reporting. Even authentic events can be surrounded by commentary designed primarily to provoke an emotional response.
The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that global trust in news has fallen to 37%, while trust in news encountered through social media and AI chatbots stands at just 22% and 20%, respectively. The report also found that 62% of respondents globally are concerned about what is real and what is fake online.
Those numbers should make all of us uncomfortable.
The danger is that we may eventually reach a point where people become so accustomed to manipulation that they stop knowing what deserves their confidence.
That creates an entirely different problem. If people believe everything they see, misinformation spreads. If people eventually believe nothing they see, truth loses its practical value.
A functioning society needs reliable reference points. We need to know enough about the world around us to make decisions, participate in our communities, hold institutions accountable, and understand people with whom we disagree.
Truth is part of that foundation.
I believe individual responsibility has to be part of this conversation. Every one of us has agency. We choose what to post. We choose what to share. We choose whether to react immediately or take a moment to verify something before amplifying it. Those choices have consequences.
At the same time, platforms influence the environment in which those choices are made. If the systems distributing information consistently reward the material that produces the strongest emotional reaction, they are influencing what becomes visible.