(A topic for when real life is too busy for blogging.)
I saw a story on the news a while ago, cautioning people not to look to Twitter for medical advice because there was no quality control on the information posted there.
It nearly made me fall over.
I mean really… were people really looking to Twitter for medical advice? Twitter???
And am I the only person who is appalled by the fact that this problem was so prevalent that it required a news story cautioning people not to do it??
The people who were interviewed as part of the news story said things like “well, if you see it printed on the internet, then you assume it’s true”…
This comment almost provoked an apoplectic fit. It’s true… I know it’s true… but what a commentary on how people just don’t think.
And, I think this story underscores some of the points I’ve been making lately about needing to learn to think for ourselves.
Just seeing something printed on the internet does not make it true. For goodness sake, any idiot can write something and publish it on the internet! Five year olds can twitter, Jack the Ripper could have a blog about his understanding of anatomy, Jim Bob can post his granny’s herbal tea recipe that granny said “cured everything” – but as readers, we need to exhibit some basic common sense.
People can say anything, but if you don’t know who the person is or where their information came from, then you really should find some more reliable source (like, for example, your doctor, or any doctor that you’re sure is actually a doctor, as opposed to some random nitwit on Twitter) to at least confirm the information before you act on it.
Ironically, this news story aired at the same time that commercials started appearing to support the new bill regarding internet accessibility. The tagline of the commercial is, “internet makes you smart” – ummm, really?
The internet doesn’t make people smart. Good genes make people smart, and education teaches them how to use what nature gave them.
What the internet does is let people give in to their penchant for lazy easy answers, which they will accept without question regardless of whether the answers they get are accurate or not.
God gave us all brains. Use yours.
Hi RockerGirl,
I can really relate to your passion about this. As a survivor of several “high control” (i.e. cult) groups as and adult, and God knows what as a child, I value “critical thinking” skills so so much. After I left the gorups, I ended up going back to school and getting a degree in Speech Communication, which as an integral part of my recovery, because a big part of that curriculum was rhetorical criticism, which is learning how to evaluate someones “rhetoric,” as well as how to build an argument with credible evidence.
I then went on to teach, usually college freshmen, and it felt like a calling to help their young minds develop the skills to evaluate the sources of information that they are now bombarded with. In fact, I think that is essentially what getting a college education is really about, and I wish everyone had access to what I had, and if they did, don’t take it for granted and USE it.
Rock on!
~Indigo
Comment by heartofindigo — April 27, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
Hi Indigo –
Your work sounds really cool!
And it’s always nice to hear from someone who actually understands and appreciates the values of critical thinking and personal integrity.
Thanks for your comment.
Comment by RockerGirl — April 30, 2010 @ 10:25 am