There are more than 1.9 billion websites on the internet. And that’s the data from 2018. I couldn’t find an actual number for today to quote, but it’s obviously many times higher. The thing is, there is an immeasurable amount of information that gets shared on the internet every day. When I say immeasurable, it’s because it was estimated that in 2020, the amount of data on the internet would hit 40 zetabytes. A zetabyte is about a trillion gigabytes, and it’s still hard to wrap your head around it.

So what does it mean for us, the end users? Well, there’s way too much information to choose from. Right next to every reliable fact that comes from a legit source we have tons of variants of it that are not true. More so, today, we live in the world of fake news, unproven facts, misinformation, questionable arguments, gossip, and conspiracy theories that get shared online and tend to spread even more quickly than reliable information.

With fake news and misinformation reaching new heights during the worldwide pandemic, it became clear that everything we consume online should not only be taken with a pinch of salt but rather a bag of it. Previously, Bored Panda spoke with Daniel Markuson, the cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, about ways to separate true facts from false information online which you may want to look at here.

Right next to the false information, you find collective speculation, a worldwide phenomenon that happens when internet users (and people in real life) share, interpret, and make conclusions out of bits of information unproven by any legit source. Also known as conspiracy theories, they’re also used as ways to explain things that people simply don't understand or lack a better explanation of.

We spoke with Thomas Roulet, the Associate Professor in Organization Theory at University of Cambridge, who shared some interesting insights into the complex world of conspiracies. Roulet explained that conspiracy theories are first and foremost collective narrative and so, “they make people feel part of a group.”

According to him, “they are not necessarily trying to explain something they don't understand—in fact it might be something they understand very well, but the way to approach this thing, collectively, as a group defending a theory, strengthens their sense of identity.”

Moreover, the professor explained that conspiracy theories are particularly popular when they do address the unknown. Like, the “questions for which we don't know the answer (is there life after death? are we alone in the universe?) as they address both identity needs and our desire to have answers to persistent questions.” Roulet said that “The two are related—when people feel they hold answers that nobody else has access to (they feel they have access to a truth), they feel like they are part of an even more exclusive and higher-status group.”

When asked what role social media plays in how conspiracies spread, Roulet said that “the 'social' aspect is particularly important for the spread of conspiracy theories as adherence to them is driven partly by the willingness to be part of a group.”He added: “On social media, people can directly connect with people who hold the same beliefs and more clearly identify to that group. Social media will also help those communities structure themselves and be associated with specific artefacts (logo, images, memes, quotes, etc.).”