Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, but I'm concerned that the age of critical thinking and original thought is being murdered by cut and paste.
I think the critical thinking skills have always been on the weak side. Outrage news coupled with social media has certainly had it's effect though. The internet just makes it easier to spread stuff. Viral is certainly a good term for wildly spreading stuff.
And unfortunately critical thinking course work isn’t required course work at any level for all, only for certain fields
crit·i·cal think·ing noun the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment. "professors often find it difficult to encourage critical thinking amongst their students" Yes, biases are very hard to overcome.
Some have it, most don't. Most Christians are happy with what comes from the pulpit, the sheep. On the other hand it's not uncommon the sheep have a greater faith than the critical ones with all the knowledge.