Just wanted to let you guys know that you are doing very well overall on discussion boards. I see good "Data Hunters" out there.
Keep up the good work with the feedback. It should be thoughtful and critical. Critical thinking and analysis are not negative events. Critical analysis is analyzing and examining all of the issues and facts and adding what we really need in social discussions today - fine-tuning.
In the news and social media, we are constantly pushed to "take a side" and often presented with two concrete choices of "for or against", "good or evil", "right or wrong". Nothing in the world is ever that clear and easy. Don't get me wrong, we can define what is good and bad, illegal, wrong, correct, etc. But we rarely are presented with easy-to-determine situations in which everyone will agree.
Remember that we all see the world from our own biases, stereotypes, experiences, and media exposure. Having a bias doesn't make us bad. It makes us human. What I try to teach students is to recognize their bias and account for it when they use critical thinking.
It is also important to examine your consumption of information. If you get all of your information from one source or a few sources, it may not be a complete picture. As humans, we gravitate toward comfort food or comfort information. Things that we agree with or that reaffirm our beliefs. That can result in a feedback loop of reinforcing incorrect information. As an example, hateful people tend to search for more hate and therefore reinforce their hate. We can be led to believe that everything is bad if we only look for bad information. The same can happen if we only look for the good as well.
How do you self-regulate or account for these issues?
The first thing I always tell students to do is "count". Literally, find out how often or how rare something is. Before we start screaming about any issue happening too much or too little we should know the accurate numbers. We are very seldom given numbers and data and instead are tricked by hot-button phrases. You may recognize and/or use these types of phrases. I do this too, so no one is immune. We just have to understand they are really meaningless because they can mean anything. Here are a few:
"Too many times".... (What is "too many"? Can we quantify that?)
"I see it all the time"....(How many is "all the time"?)
"One is too many."...(This phrase is emotional garbage designed to stop thinking and analyzing. It usually refers to one death, one accident, or something bad. If "one" really was too many we would have to do away with everything. No cars, no phones, no medicine, no anything. Our phones kill thousands of people. If one really is too many, throw your phone in the trash. Then sell your car and stop taking aspirin.
"Someone has to do something"... (This is the desperate grab or "do anything" phrase that causes us all to run around with our hair on fire screaming)
Those are just a few common examples of faulty thinking. Those phrases are very good for social media, short tweets, and you will get lots of reassurance that you are a good person because you took the time to write half of a sentence that agreed with the crowd. But you are not thinking or contributing to anything.
Avoid classifications of people, professions, groups, and lifestyles, as completely good or bad. We tend to move from one profession to another with what we are supposed to hate or claim "they are all bad" or "they are all good". It doesn't mean we have to avoid data and demographics. We can do both. Some professions, age groups, men, women, etc. have higher or lower risks for a variety of good and bad events. But we shouldn't then say they are all bad or good. Know the numbers.
Remember that you guys are going to be or already are professionals. That means you should strive to know the numbers, analyze data, compare and contrast, and accurately report and document. Running around with your hair on fire from one outrage to another is best for social media. In this class, we think, we count, and we ask why. We put emotion and bias aside. We verify that what we are seeing is accurate by checking multiple sources. Then we report or write as accurately as possible.
And when we make a mistake, we correct it. We disagree with each other respectfully and learn from each other.
We are all still friends after all of that.
In this class, no one gets canceled or judged. Thinking and asking why are encouraged, not discouraged. Seeing one video 500 times doesn't mean "it happens all the time". It means we looked at the same event 500 times.
Keep up the good work and remember to become better "data hunters".
Lorenz