Get ready to question everything you’ve ever read online, because this recent social media firestorm is proving yet again that today’s internet is filled to the brim with misinformation and misleading statistics: Way too many people seem to relate to this Instagram post about the struggles that only highly gifted people experience.
Yeah, call us paranoid, but these numbers simply do not add up.
The suspicious infographic was posted by an account called @GiftedAndSensitive, and listed struggles experienced by gifted people, such as anxiety, difficulty fitting in, and low self-esteem. While you might think this post would resonate with only the tiny percentage of the population that makes up our society’s most intelligent and creatively brilliant minds, it has somehow received over 3,000 comments containing messages like “THIS” and “I relate to this so hard.”
Sorry, but we’re not buying it. Are we expected to believe that there are literally tens of thousands of highly gifted people out there? Statistically speaking, that’s simply impossible. There are clearly people erroneously claiming to be gifted by saying that they frequently got bored in school when in fact, only about .01% of the world population—a tiny, elite group comprising the Picassos, Mozarts, and Marie Curies of our age—should possess the highly advanced intellectual capabilities to have that kind of experience.
While it’s unclear what would make somebody lie about being highly gifted, it’s completely depressing to see so many blatant falsehoods being spread online. Someone casually scrolling past @GiftedAndSensitive’s post might see all the comments and falsely assume that there are veritable droves of people out there who have trouble focusing and staying organized when really it’s only a handful of extremely intelligent individuals who face this struggle on a daily basis. It’s hard to feel optimistic about the future of humanity if this is the level of disinformation we have to contend with.
At this point, the post is still up and is still receiving hundreds of additional comments from people claiming to relate to the struggles of highly gifted people. At this point, the people behind the @GiftedAndSensitive account should probably consider deleting the post while they figure out a way to make sure the comments section is more accurate going forward. Here’s hoping they figure out a way to address this absolute disaster soon!
