The summer of 2015, a girl at my school was involved in a terrible car crash. A car swerved across the median into her lane, collided with her car, and then she was hit from behind. She survived, but was badly injured, and her family didn't have the money to provide her with the long-term medical care she so desperately needed. That was the first time I learned about GoFundMe.
Qudditch: Organized on Social Media played in real life
Introductions
My name is Jackson Berg and I'm a beater for the Provo Nightfuries Quidditch team. No you are not dreaming I actually said Quidditch. Yeah like from Harry Potter. I love Quidditch because there is good in everything. This includes things such as social media Many people say social media is ruining relationships. I believe social media and other digital tools aren't ruining interpersonal relationships; they're actually facilitating the creation of new interpersonal relationships and strengthening existing ones.
Confirmation bias is a serious problem. Despite the wealth of information available to us, it is possible that this overflow of information can lead to cherry-picking, causing us to focus on smaller, opinionized "snapshots" instead of the larger picture. Repeated conditioning can lead to this effect.
Some Bias-inducing methods
What does confirmation bias look like? Some examples from the lives of another may help us find it in ourselves. As such, I have been keeping track of some situations that can easily lead to one-sided opinions. With this being an election year, it hasn't been terribly difficult.
A simple technique is to state an unfounded or untrue statement as a question. Newspapers and online articles are notorious for this. Is Donald Trump the next Hitler? What does your doctor really know about alternative medicine?
Most people aren't like this.
Representing the opinion of a few as the outrage of many. In my church, we have a tradition of showing support for our leaders with a semi-annual sustaining, similar to a vote. Although it is usually unanimous (people tend to not join churches that they don't agree with), we recently had a conference where about five people loudly voiced their opposition. Although the difference between 100% and 99.99% is remarkably small, this very noisy, very small minority is often mistaken as a much larger force.
Selective presentation of information. The more overweight someone is, the less likely they're going to show off a full-body photograph.
Mixing opinions in with fact. This tends to happen most often in arguments about religion and politics.
Idea Association If someone can link the entire southern United States to the idea of inbreeding, racism, and dull-wittedness, they've destroyed the ethos of multiple States in one fell swoop.
The Pond of Prejudice
Salty water, like strong opinions, should not be thrown in the faces of others
Our minds act as lakes, with rivers constantly pouring ideas into a repository. When these streams are diverse and clean, they can fill our minds with a refreshing environment that allows facts to swim freely. When our sources are unclean or overly salty, only the most basic of facts and commonplaces can live on. I recently read of an interesting study that illustrated this effect perfectly. A recently published bookcites a study where participants were shown a picture of a white man and a black man. The white man was holding a knife in the picture, while the black man was unarmed. The study showed that a startlingly high number of test subjects--both black and white-- remembered the black man holding the knife in the picture. Although I disagree with the conclusions the author reached about how much action we should take concerning such issues, I do feel that we need to be aware of our biases before we use them.
This picture left intentionally vague
A slightly less recent example also makes this point clear. Although the link between autism and vaccines has clearly been proved false, there are still influential people who hold to such views. Some of them, like Robert de Niro hold to their old ways because the issue is steeped in emotion. Others do so because they hold others (Mommy bloggers, their yoga teachers) in higher respect than they do scientists.
Overcoming Old Ways of Thinking
The question on how to confront confirmation bias is one we must answer. Should we eliminate bias? Unfortunately, such a thing is impossible. However, we can close some saltwater streams and open our brain to fresh waters. Some ways we might do this:
Build a diverse group of friends. In high school, joining the debate team was one of the best choices I have ever made. The mix of strong friendships and strong opinions led to intelligent discussions and rounded minds.
Recognize demographics. It seems that Bernie Sanders' support is either the next Messiah or simply a radical candidate, depending on who you ask. Similarly, the recently released Batman vs Superman is either a rotten flop or an above average film. We need to recognize who gives us our opinion before digesting it.
Beware sensationalism. Buzzfeed and similar sites have shifted our focus from facts to emotion. Colbert and Stewart, although reporting news, have a greater focus on eliciting laughs than anything else.
Although bias is deeply ingrained, once we recognize it, we can control it. In an age where Google can bring the answers we want straight to us, perhaps we should start looking for the answers we need instead.
More than ever before, our civilization uses digital technology for our most basic communicating needs. We are now creating WHO WE ARE online. While these wonderful ways of communicating online give us new means of creation, expression and individuality, we are being subjects for new dangers. I believe that we have the right to have our online identities protected from unauthorized viewers.
While tolerance serves to combat radicalism, tolerance can fuel radical ideas as well. Today's social climate indicates that we must rethink the way we utilize social media, in order to preserve a truly tolerant environment.
I was raised primarily by women - my mom and two sisters. My dad constantly worked outside of our home, so most of the instruction I received in my formative years came from these three women. Now that I'm married, my wife is incredibly influential and important to me. Needless to say, the women I love in my life have helped me become the man I am today. They deserve respect, equality, and love, just as everyone does.
My mother and two sisters with my wife and I on our wedding day.
But I'm concerned that this respect is getting lost and deformed through the 21st digital society we live in. Facebook, Twitter, television, movies, video games, and the internet as a whole have made pornography and illicit sexual themes more accessible than ever before. Although some might think these forms of media will clean themselves up over time, I'm not so optimistic.
What we need is a change.
A change in the way we consume media.
A change to begin to fill the world with good and uplifting forms of media.
A change to create a powerful and respectful image of women across the globe.
Hi! My name is Katelyn Dalton, and I'm a college student trying to learn how to market myself in a world where our digital footprints are beginning to define us.
