Misinformation, or fake news, can be handled by:

1. Only sharing news stories that are verified.
2. Prioritizing consumption from news outlets that are meeting high ethical journalistic standards.

Handle the problem of polarization by:

1. Rather than competing with others, you can look at cooperation and empathic understanding.
2. Try to look at the other person’s perspective and learn something new instead of being stubborn with your own beliefs.

We have a never ending stream of information coming at us, leaving our mind exhausted, with no energy left to engage, debate, analyse or refute the epistemic (epidemic of knowledge).

Uncertainty, polarization and misinformation are the three musketeers of this information overload.

• Uncertainty: Be it diseases, the political landscape, the global concerns of war, environment and other ongoing crises, we have truckloads of uncertainty in our hands, which is stressing us out.
• Polarization: We are more polarized than anytime in history, trapped in our echo chambers, with our mind filled with confirmation bias. The distrust we have of those who don’t think like us fuels our polarized mindset.
• Misinformation: Fake news is everywhere, and it is not just to spread misinformation, but to impair our critical thinking abilities.

You can handle uncertainty by:

1. Limiting news consumption.
2. Focusing on things that are in your control.
3. Practice meditation and cultivate mindfulness in order to be more comfortable with uncertainty.