The Importance Of Critical Thinking · 5:20am Jul 30th, 2017
It is extremely important to have critical thinking skills, especially in this time in history where so much false information is circulated through social media sites and the internet as a whole. It's easy to get caught up in believing rumors, questionable facts circulated through Wikipedia or other community edited encyclopedias, fake news reports from both official news stations and internet news reporters, and really just any of the data you take in on a daily basis.
There are people, for example, who think those Facebook posts that say a like will give a donation to someone who needs help, are genuine and will like the post. But it is obvious to a critical thinking person that a like isn't going to do anything but boost the post and thus draw attention to the original poster. In other words, it is an advertising ploy.
There are other people who get suckered into opening 'fishy' e-mails and either getting involved in some scam that robs them of their money, getting catfished, or else getting a weird virus on their PC. But a critical thinking person, on the other hand, would recognize that these e-mails are scams, and just delete the same e-mails/ block the sender.
Some people look up to celebrities and because they appreciate the things they contribute to the entertainment world, they will start adopting their ideologies. This may lead them to acting in a bad way if say a celebrity like Jake Paul is their role model. His behavior isn't the best, so someone copying him is bound to cause a public disturbance. A critical thinker wouldn't take the words of anyone, regardless of who they are, at face value without first evaluating the information they are taking in and thinking about how their (potential) actions could effect the people around them.
Other people read posts on internet forums, news sites, social media sites, and so on and take the information as the truth because 'it sounds true' without doing any research on the subject for themselves. This leads to 'group think' mentality where people just parrot what other people are saying without any real understanding of what is going on. A critical thinking person questions everything they read and does research into every subject they come across to truly be educated on a subject.
There are many more examples that I could throw out there, but I think at this point you pretty much get the point.
The main thing to take away from this post is to question everything. Just because a friend, family member, teacher, news reporter, and so on SAYS that something is true, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is. For all you know, the person could just be parroting what they heard someone else say. They could simply be misinformed or be giving you information from a biased perspective. So while you should always listen to what people say (that is just respectful) you should also fact check on your own, and see if the information is truly correct.
Sometimes this takes going to multiple sources, including websites, books, documentaries, and so on to evaluate all sides and come up with a well educated, informed opinion. Yes, it takes some time, but at least you will know the truth for yourself instead of just repeating information back like a broken record.
So just remember; do research into all of the data you take in. And encourage other people to be critical thinkers as well.
This may or may not be the reason why I generally tend to avoid social media as a whole. I just stick to my bookshelf of my mom's old college textbooks that I dug out of the basement. She still thinks it's a bit weird, but she doesn't mind.
4617564 Just remember that not all books, documentaries, and so on are always up to date or written from a non-biased perspective. Try to get information from books published in the current year, watch current documentaries on subjects, and read any kind of article or information that had current discoveries and etc. in them. :)
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Yup. I actually watched a pearl harbor documentary with my dad earlier. I don't know the title though. I walked in on it about halfway through.
4617571 Neat! I love watching documentaries of all kinds. Especially the ones on ancient civilizations. :)
I think you said this well Lyra. But I'll have to put it into question ;)
4617586 As well you should. ;)
Think the problem is that today we are being drowned under information. And people neither know how to make sure that information is true or even if it is true they don't necessarily understand it.
History information is probably effected the worst. Because history is hard to be separated from politics and personal bias but also mistake of applying modern morals to the past or to different culture. And well also people look for example at WW1 and say "Germans were evil and they had started it" or "It's all Gavrilo Princip's fault" and yet are completely clueless about what led to those situations.
4617663 Those are very good points. Critical thinking (as I have found out from friends still in the public school system) is something that is not being taught to students anymore. I find this troubling on more than one level because not only do we have a generation of uninformed people, you have to remember that these same people VOTE. Without critical thinking skills, people are easily controlled. It seems like a sinister tactic to me. And that is why I try to encourage younger people, teens, and adults to develop critical thinking skills. It is never too late to learn this very important life skill.
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Screw voting, these people one day need to be self-sufficient individuals. How can you be your own person if you can't ask "why?" about information presented to you. Today people confuse intelligence with just knowing tons of information,often only in single context as presented by the first seen source. It's not matter of just knowing what is "right or wrong" but why. And people today seem to need a law to tell them that something is wrong.
But well I am not sure if lack of critical thinking is really that recent thing. Heck how do I know that I have it.
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4617810 As long as you question the information placed in front of you, regardless of where it comes from, then you have critical thinking skills.
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How are you Lyra
4617851 I am doing pretty good thank you. How are things going with you?
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Good to hear, and things are good on my end.
4617886 Yay! I am happy to hear it my friend. :)
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Thank you Lyra :3
4617911 You are very welcome, my friend.
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^w^
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Sooo be paranoid
4618046 Well don't be paranoid. If you are paranoid you will start believing every conspiracy theory and shut yourself into a basement, wearing a tinfoil hat. :P
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Wait you are saying... I am going to have a basement
Also conspiracy theories are fun. They require you to reject what you are being told and stop being deceived... and instead accept what you are being alternatively told. Because only official information is deceiving.
4618132 Well...I don't take them at face value. But I admit that they are fun to learn about.
And some have actually turned out to be true! Although I think that was mainly a coincidence. :P
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That's the fun about them theories. Sometimes they are true, sometimes they are just crazy. See sports fans have betting on their sport clubs, we have betting on our crazy theories.
4618809 What kind of theories are those?
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Conspiracy theories like moon landing being faked by US or Soviet cover ups of their own space program screw ups. Aliens being behind *insert here*.
Or Faust making Faustian bargain to make MLP so addicting. Oh like her name is just a coincidence.
4619053 I know about regular conspiracy theories. I was wondering about the sports ones you mentioned.
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Oh I meant we bet on which conspiracy theory will win and other people bet on sport clubs.
Though I suppose there are the topics about which club is fixing games more. Like Real Madrid, at least I have heard it being called the Franco's Club so they weren't allowed to lose.
4619946 Oh I see what you mean now. I misread that. :P