It is really scary that peoples' perceptions of reality seem to be getting less accurate over time, especially in regards to important issues like crime levels

It is really scary that peoples' perceptions of reality seem to be getting less accurate over time, especially in regards to important issues like crime levels and the health of the economy. The success of democracy depends on people being able to elect effective representatives, and if people can't even accurately perceive what's happening around them in the world right now then I just don't see how we can expect people to make remotely informed decisions at the voting booth :-( If I had to guess, I feel like this problem is stemming from social media, both due to it spreading misinformation and due to it acting as an echo chamber that amplifies negative sentiments in general. I don't know if this is really what's going on though or if there's some other explanation for this phenomenon. I wish there was something I could do.