Let's be honest - you wouldn't send your kids to school for 10 years, if you knew that they were going to be taught subjects by reading newspapers and Facebook posts, and not by using educational reference books, guided by a qualified teacher.
And yet supposedly sensible adult humans rely entirely upon tabloids and social media for their knowledge of the world we live in. And Google - which is okay, if you know how to use Google.
Critical analysis of written work seems to have disappeared from society.
Critical analysis of written work seems to have disappeared from society.
As an example, there's a riddle on Twitter for the last couple of days (the 'Name The Fourth Son' riddle) which seems to prove the point.
A cursory glance will probably lead you to the wrong answer.
Reading it properly will give you the obvious correct answer.
A cursory glance will probably lead you to the wrong answer.
Reading it properly will give you the obvious correct answer.
We seem to have become bored with reading a piece of written work from start to finish with a consistent critical eye. I have friends who will read the first couple of chapters of a book and then skip to the end, to decide if they'll bother reading the bit in the middle... 😳
With news articles and opinion pieces, people seem to read a headline and assume they have a complete grasp of the following text. What's wrong with us? Are we evolving into something less intellectual? Our moral and philosophical capacities seem eroded as well, replaced by
a visceral instinct and emotion, and a burning desire to be heard, when we have nothing much to offer, except abuse, ridicule and uninformed opinion which we believe to be facts.
Obviously this doesn't apply to everybody, but it just seems much more apparent these days. Maybe it's just the last three years.
Celebrity idiot in the White House, the rise of the Far Right, increased religious extremism and societal polarisation.
Celebrity idiot in the White House, the rise of the Far Right, increased religious extremism and societal polarisation.
Maybe it's just 3am and I'm a bit depressed at the way the world is turning to shit before our very eyes. Burning, flooding, quaking - ah sure, everything will work out, won't it...?
Managed to turn a very short thread about critical thinking into an apocalyptic saga.
Soz.
Night night. Sweet Dreams.
Soz.
Night night. Sweet Dreams.
