We may not get snow in this country but there are definitely snowflakes piling up and littering most of social media. In case you have never heard of the new meaning assigned to the word ‘snowflake’, it’s usually used to describe people who are ready to take offence at everything and everyone.

They also seem to spend their days thinking that they are somehow more entitled or important than the billions of people who have come before them, those who are alive at this very moment and probably those who will show up in the future if we leave enough ice on the caps.

For your common garden variety snowflake, nothing and no one escapes their argumentative gaze. It matters little whether they know much about the subject or not; if they feel irked, they will attack top virologists, arming themselves with up to five Google searches and something they heard someone say on the radio on their way to work.

The problem is that, while in the past, people who were inclined to be this way could only air their grievances to a small group of benevolent listeners, the internet has democratised information in a way nothing ever had before.

The bitter irony of it all is that the subject of all these conspiracy theories is already a reality

So, here I am on a Tuesday afternoon reading an article about top virologist Chris Barbara taking the vaccine while having to simultaneously look at a long, meandering comment from a middle-aged man sharing his horrifically constructed thesis on why he thinks Bill Gates will be controlling all those who take it through sound waves. Yes, Charles, Bill Gates definitely cares how you will be spending your Sunday trying to find an open grocery store in Żejtun.

The bitter irony of it all is that the subject of all these conspiracy theories is already a reality. Any information that anyone with enough power wants about you is already out there and what’s more, you gave it completely freely and continue to do so every time that you connect to the internet. Just try doing a quick Google of yourself, even if you’ve never published anything. A friend of mine can still find a review he wrote about 10 years ago about a book which he now hates.

Every time you interact, every single time you comment, you are swaying and changing your own online algorithm. You are basically building a profile of who you are and what your most basic wants are. Like Santa, your computer sees when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake and cheating on your husband.

Everything you have ever bought, everything you have ever looked up has been stored and already sold to companies who in turn will want to sell you new things you don’t need. We are the product, and the hysterical part is that while people fight invisible, mythical beasts and watch yet another conspiracy theory video, our machines are silently recording us.

What never fails to baffle me is how people don’t seem to be particularly bothered about something which is fact, and instead choose to kick up a ruckus about some of the most improbable rubbish you’ve ever heard in your life.

Science and fairy tales have been put on equal footings, and if you dare to say any different, then you’re being an oppressive dictator. It was in this very same environment that the pandemic was free to spread and spread, bolstered by dubious arguments and even flimsier ‘research’.

Here’s to a new year where we try to be better, not least because you can’t be as special as you think you are if there’s no one there to fight with.