I was inspired to write about this topic after watching a documentary about a Flat Earth a few months prior. While researching I thought back on the documentary, and decided that this is a good topic to do field work in. I’ve learned tremendously about the Flat Earth community and was able to witness interactions with Flat Earthers and Round Earthers, people who believe that the Earth is a globe. 

Yaya Camara

Professor Harris

Writing for Social Science

8 April 2020

Flat Earth

My first experience with the Flat Earth community was through a Netflix documentary called, “Behind the Curve”. While reading the description of the documentary, I was struck by their interpretation of the Earth. Flat Earthers believe that the earth is a flattened-out version of the globe with a glass dome around it (Clark, 2018). The picture immediately caught my attention, and I clicked play. The community members were providing evidence that support their interpretation of earth’s shape. Watching the documentary helped me realize that this group was not as shallow as I once thought. In fact, these people were committed in showing their truth, which intrigued me into learning more about the people who make up the Flat Earth community.

To start, the Flat Earth Society is a community that has been around for nearly 65 years. They regard themselves as Flat Earthers and use their platform and many other social media sites to publicly express their beliefs. Samuel Shenton created the organization in order to show his theory of earth’s shape, however, it was the leadership of the second president, Charles K. Johnson, where the community and its membership bolted (Shenton, Johnson, 2019).

Although the organization was founded in the 1960’s, a flat earth was always speculated. Samuel Birley Rowbotham in his book “Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe”, conducted many experiments proving this theory. One famous experiment was his second experiment where he posted 6 flags, a mile apart from each other, onto a body of water that was eight feet deep. Since he was able to see all six flags in a straight line, he concluded that the Earth was flat. This experiment and many others helped concrete the theory to thousands of people (Rowbotham, 1881)

Field Work:

In this field search, I observed three Facebook groups: “Official Flat Earth and Globe Discussion”, “Flat Earth Society” and “Flat Earth”. By looking at the “Members” tab in each group, I concluded that most members are adult White Americans. I was able to confirm this because most members do not have avatars and/or aliases. Additionally, on the same page, I was noticing that most members live in the southern portion of the United States. These conclusions are not unordinary because the founder and second president were White, and the second president was also from California.

After realizing this, I was mixed in how I should interpret it. From my exposure of Whites in the South, whites living in the southeast tend to be uneducated while whites in the southwest are very-liberal minded. The lack of education of one group and the openness of new ideas of the other probably played a part in each member’s process in becoming a Flat Earther. These two characteristics, although they are derogatory, could have been a reason in why they are open to unconventional ideas

White Americans from this region have a larger presence in the posts and comments seen throughout the three groups. This made me believe that White Americans specifically from this region are more in tuned with the beliefs of the community and probably interact with other Flat Earthers in the real world. As mentioned before, many members of the group do not use aliases and avatars, thus showing their commitment level in these communities because they are not cautious of showing their identity.

I thought this sense of community would be reflected in the group discussions where members can voice their opinions in a mature manner. Reading the descriptions of various Facebook groups; one stood out to me the most, “We are informing everyone about the true shape of the Earth after being deceived since we were children”. I thought that these groups are going to be informative by providing “Round Earthers”, people who believe that the earth is a sphere, insight into their beliefs and evidence that support a flat earth in a respectable fashion. However, I was shocked to see many arrogant members often ridiculing people who believe otherwise.

Members of these communities often questioned another’s intelligence when a member posts a thread. For instance, in the Official Flat Earth and Globe Discussion, a Facebook user posts how he has recorded shadows, which proves that the Earth is a globe, and no one can prove to them otherwise. Flat Earthers responded by saying, “This is by far the most idiotic post I’ve seen approved in this group”, and another said that these dumb posts are teachable moments. Another thread I have come across is a Flat Earther asking, why do “Round Earthers” adamantly believe that the Earth is round? Flat Earther’s responded by saying that Round Earthers were guppies because they did not see the truth and became humans like Flat Earthers. Another responds, “sheep” because they do not think outside of the box. This is two of the many posts that proved to me that members of these communities are very degrading to others.

While I was reading the posts and comments, I felt very belittled and ridiculed, because, instead of simply informing others about their thoughts, many members are going out their way in calling Round Earthers “guppies” and “sheep” to information like one user said, was available for thousands of years. Ever since I was young, I was always taught that the world is round- never flat (Towards a Flat Earth Theory). This makes me, and maybe others, pushback from the group because they only want to see posts that reflect their mindset. This also made me wonder, is this platform an outlet for Flat Earthers to express their opinions after being dismissed by most of the world or are they just sulking up in confirmation bias?

In the future I would like to post some questions on these Facebook groups asking about their behavior towards Round Earthers. Why are they so combative to opposing beliefs if they are aware that those beliefs make up most of the population? Also, I would like to know if they’re involvement in the community has impacted them in any way in the real world? These questions will provide me even more insight about the members who make up the community.

From thinking back after watching the documentary, “Behind the Curve”, I did not imagine that I would further investigate this group. However, I ended up choosing the group and looking back, it was a fruitful experience. This field search provided me with an abundance of information about the Flat Earth community. Additionally, by discovering Facebook groups, I was able to come across members who make up the community, thus helping me create trends that accurately describe the community. Moreover, I was able to observe their group dynamics between themselves, which exemplified a powerful community, and towards Round Earthers, which that specifically highlights the ugly in the community. Therefore, their interaction with opposing beliefs helped me conclude that this group is not comfortable sharing their beliefs in the real world since there are not many influential people publicly claiming that they are Flat Earthers. Unfortunately, the rest of the world will continue to undermine the communities’ credibility because of their actions.

 

 

 

                                                                           References:

Charles K. Johnson. (2019, July 1). Retrieved from https://wiki.tfes.org/Charles_K._Johnson

Clark, Daniel (Director). (2018). Behind the Curve [Netflix]. United States: Delta V Productions.

Flat Earth. (2020, April 15). In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved April 16, 2020, from

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2675635355834827/

Flat Earth Society. [ca 2020]. In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved April 17, 2020, from https://www.facebook.com/groups/2205176794/

McGlathery, G. (1980). Towards a Flat Earth Theory. Science and Children, 17(4), 13-15. Retrieved April 17, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43160440

Official Flat Earth. (2020, April 14). In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FlatEarthGlobeDiscussion

Rowbotham, B. Samuel. (1881) Experiment Two. Zetetic Astronomy:Earth Not a Globe.

 Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/za07.htm

Shenton, Samuel (2019, October 4). Retrieved from https://wiki.tfes.org/Samuel_Shenton