The Dire Wolf Returns—And Gets Ridiculed
San Bernardino County Museum paleontologist Carrie Lambert uncovers 30,000-year-old fossils near a ... More leg bone of the second largest mastodon ever found. (Photo by David McNew)
Did Jurassic Park teach us nothing? After TIME reported on scientists who supposedly brought back dire wolves from extinction, parts of the online world acted somewhat unexpectedly. Rather than being excited, many people were mocking and ridiculing the return of the dire wolf.
Negativity reigned. And while not everyone online reacted this way, it's enough of a movement to be interesting — because the reaction shows how social media helps us handle societal change.
Let's dive a little deeper into the story.
Earlier this week, a biotechnology company called Colossal Biosciences announced they had genetically engineered white wolves, creating a trio of animals that were named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.
This is where things get interesting. Despite the fact many publications reported this advancement as the 'return' of the dire wolf, many are disputing this claim.
Some publications, such as Slate, point out the lack of a peer-reviewed research paper from Colossal Biosciences.
And, as the writer of the piece states, 'What we're really looking at, it seems, are gray wolves modified to be dire wolves of George R.R. Martin's books rather than living, breathing replicas of the actual prehistoric carnivores that hunted bison, horses, camels, and baby mammoths in packs during the Pleistocene.'
To rephrase that, what we've been shown is a little bit of a charade. Impressive, sure, but not exactly bringing back the dire wolf from extinction.
On the surface, it would be easy to expect many of the reactions to dire wolves 'returning' from extinction to be glowing and excited about modern technology, yet there are broad subsections of people reacting in quite the opposite way.
Rather than being hyped or excited, some have turned to social media to express their discontent and make jokes about this situation. The question, of course, is what's driving this.
The first and most obvious answer is about the gap in reporting. Many publications who covered the news led with headlines which were variants on 'The Dire Wolf Is Back,' yet, as mentioned, this is a rather murkier claim than at first seems.
Of course, this is part of any sort of long-form content, especially online. Publications want to get people to read their pieces, so a slightly sensationalized headline that could be broadly, if not entirely correct, achieves that goal. This has been part of the news cycle since news was invented.
Social media, though, is new, and can present information in an entirely different way. You can look at Twitter as basically an entire platform built around long headlines. There's space to discuss a thought a bit more.
So when people read an article and discover the headline wasn't entirely accurate, they take to the platforms to ridicule the reporting and the news.
Yet this isn't the full story. To me, the most interesting part of this reaction is around the jokes and mockery of the science.
This might be a response to the out-of-balance state of the world.
We live in times of increasing advancement, but not in every single direction equally. As some of the social posts point out, it seems bizarre that scientists can bring dire wolves back from extinction, but there are still many diseases that are yet to be cured.
While there are explanations from this that range from the complexity of the task to monetary concerns, the biggest point is it forms a sense of cognitive dissonance.
Really, if we can bring extinct animals like the dire wolf back, we should be able to have a functioning, futuristic society where we've solved most of the other problems.
Yet this doesn't happen and, on some level, that feels wrong.
What social media allows here is a way of blowing off steam. Research shows that digital humor can reduce stress, so it can be argued that going online and posting or making jokes about news like this can help people regain a sense of control.
Ultimately, we live in strange times, where contradictory things continually happen. This can cause people to experience stress, anger, and discomfort, yet social media can operate as a pressure release valve. By making a joke out of a serious situation, memes and the online world can help people feel more balanced.
The dire wolf is back from extinction. Let's just hope it goes a little better than Jurassic Park did.
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