Class is in session. Today we are going to practice critical thinking like I would with students. A brief warning – I’m going to ask you to read something that you may disagree with in order to understand it. It’s ok to disagree. It’s not ok to skip the homework. 2/ This gift link will take you to a piece from the online Washington Post. It’s free to read, so no excuses. We’ll be looking to understand what the author believes and what kind of evidence the author finds convincing. wapo.st/41klrSt

I've read all 4 of these articles, and they are interesting. I think the big takeaway is that people's and politicians's naive ideas about how to fix things don't always hold up under scrutiny. It was a massive study, with interesting data. (Gift link) nytimes.com/2023/07/27/tec… 2/ Another takeaway is how very much data FB has on folks. It would be worth it to read the articles just to see about that. They are simple enough that you don't have to be a researcher to understand most of it. Here are links:

Seriously, though. Let me start with thoughts from a conversation I had with a student today.

Twitter was a part of a general shift in the information ecosystem that has had both positive and negative effects on society. #Thread

https://twitter.com/DrSturg/status/1593447568335175680

2/ Positives abound. News is careful and careful is good, but news didn't cover everything. Twitter let people and organizations share important information in real time that sometimes made a real difference.

What a way to go. #Thread

https://twitter.com/AltScalesOfJust/status/1593397805799743489

2/ I've been casually and with some interest following the development of ... this ... for a week or two.

This is a good time to remind you: cyberattacks are actual attacks. If you are a social media user, you have likely been involved. This is true whether you are a "Let's Go Biden" type or a "Let's Go Brandon Type." #DetectingDeception 2/ You probably believe that those who believe differently than you are more vulnerable to disinformation, and you are probably wrong.

Time for a little fun with math. I often see 99 percent survival rate as a snappy comeback for people talking about vaccines and mask mandates. And I think we can all agree that it's important to consider risks and benefits when deciding things. What does 99 percent mean? 2/ If it's a death rate, that means for every 100 people infected, 99 lives and 1 dies. To be fair, 99 is a much bigger number than 100. Here is one *

Here are 99

***************************************************************************************************

This is an important point. Some people use dual meaning on purpose to confuse people. That's bad #DetectingDeception. Others hear the confusing thing and are, well, confused.

https://twitter.com/lelia_glass/status/1432001886748618754

2/ Example: Someone said in front of my kid yesterday that masks don't work. They do, and the kid and I had to have a talk about what might be going on here.

Took a mini #socialmedia break and on my return, my first impulse was to snarkily tweet "The plural of anecdote is not data." But that's probably not clear. Here's what I mean. 2/ I think humans are hardwired to learn from the experiences of others, and stories that engage the emotions are particularly effective. We have entire industries built around creating these stories to manipulate beliefs and actions, after all.

Good morning. The Senate trial begins today, and you'll have a lot of opportunities for #DetectingDeception. You've been warming up for months, but here are a few last-minute tips. 2/ You won't find the deceptions as much in things people say in the trial as you will in things people say about the trial in news and on social media. There are consequences for being deceptive in legal proceedings, but there may not be for doing it elsewhere.

Off to teach today - a few hours in a de-densified classroom with masked students. Based on news reports, planning on double mask on me, but spent some time looking for official guidance from a health department and 🦗. This seems troublesome. #PartyLikeAProfessor 2/ I mean, look at this. One Google search for double masks for #COVID19 yields all this conflicting advice.

#WednesdayWisdom There has been a lot of calling media outlets #FakeNews over the last several years, and I thought this chart was interesting (Expand to see recent trends). #DetectingDeception 2/ It's been pretty evident that calling things #FakeNews was a way to avoid stories that the name-caller just didn't like. That's deceptive of course. Two ways you might notice this.

This is an interesting summation from interviews with journalists covering taxi online cultures. Several interesting ideas including "to assess newsworthiness, one must also assess what weapons the story would hand to its audiences." datasociety.net/wp-content/upl… 2/ "Further, the choice
to engage with a false story – even in the effort to refute it – aligns with the interests of the manipulators, who see any form of amplification as a victory."

Today in #DetectingDeception is ... this. It's a good example of why reading past the tweet or headline is important, and also a good example of deceptive distraction. 2/ There's a full story, which you can read here. He basically went on, beyond the headline, to say that there are a variety of causes that could be examined. huffpost.com/entry/kevin-mc…

Today in #DetectingDeception is the false comparison. I've seen this graphic a few places on social media and I don't know if it's authentic, but for this discussion, that doesn't really matter. Here's why something like this would have issues. 2/ When you look at information, there are a few relevant questions you might ask:

Is it true?

Is it in context?

Is it relevant?

Recent/current/future events in the U.S. got you feeling helpless? Here's one thing you can do today, right from where you are, to help. #FightFakeNews #DetectingDeception 2/ When people feel unsure, they try to get information to understand the situation. That's human nature. In a swirl of toxic lies and deceptions, it's very risky. Everyone needs to check themselves before they believe or repeat.

Today in #DetectingDeception is your feelings and how they encourage misinformation. There was a little kerfuffle recently over a much-shared post saying (falsely) that Mitch McConnell had vowed to allow no Democrat-sponsored bills in the new term. 2/ The post's writer has said it was a parody, and a follow-up tweet noted "Maybe people mistake me for an influencer." Why would this post get shared so often (sometimes by public figures)? Two things: Anxiety and uncertainty.

#SaturdayThoughts: It's Monkey Week for me. We go back to classes right away in the new year, so I usually use the week between Christmas and New Years to get some monkeys off my back that will plague me all next semester if I don't. 2/ Usually involves making sure all my work clothes are clean and ironed, that I have a good backlog of meals in the freezer for the busy nights, etc.

Today in #DetectingDeception Critical thinkers take the time to *understand* arguments that they don't agree with, and it helps them make better decisions. Ideally, you could make the argument for each side as well as someone who accepts it. #WednesdayWisdom 2/ Why bother to understand what others think? Two reasons. First, you might be wrong, and f you only go by what you assume, you'll never know. Pro-tip: find opinion from people who actually believe something. This means using a variety of sources.

In recognition of #IndigenousPeoplesDay2020 I'd like to tell you a bit about my friend Jehry Rivera, a part of the Terraba indigenous group, which lives on a mountainside in southern Costa Rica. 2/ The Terraba are mostly found in Panama, and the ones who live in Costa Rica have evidence that they were brought to Costa Rica by the invading Spanish hundreds of years ago.

I have some real concerns about college students and their ability to #vote this year. I've spent more than 20 years working with these emerging adults and I care about them, and about their voices. I work to teach them HOW to think (not what, lest you worry) 2/ For traditional-age college students, it's often their very first chance to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens. That's exciting. Many don't vote. That's disappointing. They get written off as lazy and unmotivated. That's wrong.

Why this matters: a #thread. nytimes.com/2020/06/01/bus… 2/ #opinion I am trained as a journalist, worked as one, and now teach young people who will become journalists in the future. I now start my semesters with a question: What would have to offer the world that any blogger or human with a cell phone would not?