Helping my daughter with her homework, I learned fast that the very first thing we needed to do was interrupt the constant flow of text messages and turn the cell phone off. I wonder if multitasking and ubiquitous distraction has rendered us collectively vulnerable to the spread of misinformation. The bullshit wouldn't spread like it does, propagating from channel to channel, if it didn't have an attention-getting hook. But it also wouldn't spread like it does if it were adequately digested (on the news side, thoroughly vetted, on the consumer side, subjected to some credibility analysis).

It worries me, because it suggests that there could be as much propaganda as ever, but that the form has changed.

Hey, I hear Barack Obama is a muslim terrorist sleeper underground weatherman black racist who is trying to destroy the US by being falsely sworn in as President when he's not even a natural born citizen.

As distressing as I find it that anyone might believe any of it, what distresses me more is that many can believe it all simultaneously.