The post-truth era in 2025

Forty-four per cent of Canadians get their news from social media accounts unaffiliated with any scientific, government, or news organization, according to a 2023 survey from Statistics Canada. The rising use of social media as a source of news is just one example that exhibits the paradigm of post-truth.

Oxford Languages defines post-truth as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The term has gained popularity to remark on the apparent erosion of truth that has developed since the turn of the century.

Given the modernity of the phenomenon, it is appropriate to analyze some of the events of the past year that demonstrate its prevalence. The following paragraphs illustrate the extent to which the continuous growth of social media and AI, and the rise of anti-intellectualism have resulted in the devaluation of truth, and how this reflects a rather uncomfortable characteristic of human nature.

On Dec. 11, Time Magazine declared the person, or rather people, of the year to be “the architects of AI.” The cover of the issue pictures multiple tech giants, like Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, sitting above New York City, recreating the famous “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photo. It’s clear that AI is considered one of the most impactful developments in the past few years, and for good reason. Artificial intelligence is transforming the lives of people in virtually every sector and steadily becoming a tool that is used in most aspects of daily life. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 27 per cent of U.S. adults say they interact with AI several times a day, while AI experts think the number is more like 79 per cent.

Where the issue concerning post-truth arises is the use of AI chatbots. Large language models (LLMs) collect data from the user to build a desirable personality that reinforces the user’s existing beliefs. In this way, LLMs reflect and develop the user’s beliefs, offering no resistance or criticism. AI models are trained to adopt an engaging and humanlike nature that only spurs this occurrence. Moreover, LLMs are an accessible tool through which anyone can quickly reinforce their beliefs without needing to research any further, a product of humanity’s increasing desire for consumption and convenience.

Aided significantly by the developments in AI, social media acts as the basis for the emergence of the post-truth era. It’s not a surprise to anyone familiar with social media that both disinformation and misinformation spread easily online. This phenomenon is in part due to the social media’s algorithms. First, social media platforms facilitate the sharing of content at an unparalleled rate. Vosoughi et al., in a study published in Science in 2018, found that on X (formerly Twitter), “Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information.”

Now, in 2025, with the immense improvement in AI-generated content, false information is even more pervasive. More AI-generated content is being published on social media, and it is becoming harder to distinguish from human-generated content. AI bots can disseminate information widely and quickly. For example, on Nov. 20, Google released Nano Banana Pro, an image generation model that produces images that are nearly impossible to identify as AI. These new innovations and their implementation on social media highlight how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction, what is true from what is false.

2025 has also seen an increase in anti-intellectualism, especially at the political extremes. It seems that people are no longer considering as reliable organizations responsible for providing information that informs our understanding of multiple scientific fields. The neglect to provide sound evidence or to conduct thorough research on the topic before making a claim is not only limited to users online but now also extends to governmental organizations. It seems that this increasing rejection of scientific processes and rigorous verification mirrors the changing attitudes and values of the citizens; after all, democratic governments are supposed to reflect the will of the people. If the unimportance of truth is a symptom of society’s changing beliefs, then the question must be raised: Why do we value truth at all?

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) is often considered the founding father of the post-truth era. It is fitting that Nietzsche’s philosophy is then able to describe the causes of this era. Nietzsche often focused on the capacity for humans to identify truth and, in the same vein, the existence of untruths that make life bearable. In this way, truth fits into Nietzsche’s philosophical concept of the “Will to Power.” To put it simply, the Will to Power is a framework that describes the fundamental power that drives everything in the world, including our understanding and values. The Will to Power is an umbrella encompassing every other drive, like the Will to Live or, crucially, the Will to Truth. From this standpoint, truth is simply a value that sits on a hierarchy. In this way, truth will only remain high on the value hierarchy insofar as it serves another drive, or until another drive takes its place.

It’s important to note, the individual themselves may still believe they value truth, but their perception of what truth is has subtly shifted to support another value, like belonging. For example, radicalized individuals that want to fit into a group will use their supposed truth to facilitate their belonging. This process can be seen now, in the post-truth era, as one’s own beliefs no longer require justification by empirical evidence, resulting in the perceived devaluation of truth. It is at this junction that Nietzsche forces us to evaluate the grounding of our values. Is truth humanity’s objective goal or rather a product of our desires?

To recap, 2025 has seen multiple events that serve to solidify the contemporary age’s status as one of post-truth. Advancements in AI and its incorporation in social media can create an echo chamber, leading to radicalization and delusion. Furthermore, social media has produced an environment through which we consume news as if it were entertainment and through which misinformation is rampant. At the same time, a growing anti-intellectual movement has reduced trust in institutions responsible for informing the public. All of the above have contributed to the post-truth era. Adopting the Nietzschean framework of the Will to Power allows us to identify potential causes of the post-truth era, which in turn reveals truth is not as sacred as it may have seemed.

» Colin Shaw is a Grade 12 student at École secondaire Neelin High School