The feed did the choosing

A woman in Amman is certain that a particular herbal tea brings down blood sugar. She is far from alone. Her sister believes it, three neighbours believe it, and the clips she watches each evening are full of smiling, healthy people who believe it too.

All of us pick up beliefs this way. Very few of the things we are sure about were tested by us. They arrived from the people near us, and they stayed because those people kept repeating them.

For a long time, that had a limit. Only a handful of voices reached everyone, and most of them stayed near the middle. Odd ideas existed, but they lived in small corners, and the person holding one usually knew it was unusual.

That limit has gone. A feed shows each of us more of whatever we lingered on yesterday. Spend a fortnight watching people who swear by a tea, a diet or a theory about who really runs things, and it starts to feel as if everyone agrees. The odd belief stops feeling odd. It feels like common sense.

Sometimes belief helps. Someone who trusts their routine tends to stick to it, and that can do real good. But there is usually someone selling the routine, and what suits the seller does not always suit the believer. The two drift apart without anyone noticing.

So deciding what to watch, and whom to spend evenings with, is not a small matter of taste. It is the slow work of deciding what we will be certain of next year.

She never chose a belief about tea. She chose what to watch each evening, and that did the choosing for her.