NTUST Reading Blog 2016-17: Log #2

2017.03.14

Log#2

In my previous log, I shared how social media mislead us as to mental illness. This week I read a book chapter as well as online articles. Some elaborate on either the popular social platforms or critical thinking, while the others discuss both.

The online article that I would like to share with (recommend) you is Social media subverts critical thinking by Jason Brooks on The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, a student-operated newspaper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (I also read other articles, but this one is absolutely my favorite among all.) As you can tell from the title, the author thinks that social media subverts our ability to think critically. He supports his ideas with virus-like retweeting on Twitter and zombilizing liking on Facebook. I want to focus solely on the latter because I am a Facebook user.

As Jason suggests, we stop ourselves from taking the opportunity to think by liking on Facebook. The reason? For most of the time (when we are being phubbers), too many of us replace comments, discussion, and even debates with liking, period. (I guess that is why the elder always say technology does no good to the young generations.) Instead, we care how many likes a post get, press “like” to agree, disagree with the “mad” emoji button, decide whether to read a post or not by the number of likes, judge people based on a biased headline or a single story, and become close-minded when we subscribe what to and not to see. (According to A thought exercise on social media and critical thinking and A Year of Critical Thinking in a Distracted World, most of us use social media to connect to like-minded people instead of learning about the rest, and that is, we cocoon ourselves in our existing and unchallenged view of world, including social, political, economic, cultural, and religious biases.)

From this article, I learn that we should strike a balance between liking and commenting. In addition to liking, we should not forget to voice our personal opinions as fully as possible by simply making a comment below a post. I like the author of The Impact of Social Media on Critical Thinking saying, “But when I trust someone so much that I fail to use my own critical thinking ability, I have failed myself.” While you are producing written words, you are thinking in the meantime. Through reading, then understanding, and finally yet importantly, thinking (critically), we don’t simply blind-trust in any social media sources, and by keeping these three steps a habit, we can free ourselves from the misleading ones, ultimately.

I borrow Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking by Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford from the NTU Library. The book chapter Why Develop a Critical Eye? expounds on two parts: Critical thinking basics and Critical thinking and every day. Provided by the two psychologists, Carole Wade and Carol Tavris, eight essential guidelines involved in the process of critical thinking are introduced. (I list them below so you can take a look.) I think it is much easier for us to learn how to think critically hence improve our thinking knowing these eight. On the other side, critical thinking is for every soul and every day, as the Psychologist Dennis Coon defines critical thinking as “an ability to evaluate, compare, analyze, critique, and synthesize information.” By saying this, I really like the authors always bringing real-life supporting details into their discussion. They take advertising, medicines made from endangered animals, and common superstition of AIDS in Africa as their examples in order to tell us that critical thinking is for everyday life.