In the age of the Internet, can you afford not to be a critical thinker?

[Dottleshead ★]

My critical thinking can be off the charts -- which sometimes can be a detriment.  Can you afford not to be a critical thinker these days?  And how much critical thinking do you need?  When it comes right down to it, is being a critical thinker good of bad?  How much critical thinking is necessary and how much should we avoid?  Be careful, I'm going to critique your response.  Also feel free to critique this post and tell us how you did it -- like how much critiqueness you employed.  The luke warm scale?  Or the critical scale?  Or are you on the lick my nuts scale?

[shootingstar]

Critical thinking needs to be taught and infused into school subjects starting from elementary school upward. However always better to learn rather than never later in life.

[Tizeye]

4 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Critical thinking needs to be taught and infused into school subjects starting from elementary school upward. However always better to learn rather than never later in life.

Critical thinking is the definition of woke, and is now banned in schools.

[maddmaxx ★]

5 minutes ago, Dottles said:

My critical thinking can be off the charts -- which sometimes can be a detriment.  Can you afford not to be a critical thinker these days?  And how much critical thinking do you need?  When it comes right down to it, is being a critical thinker good of bad?  How much critical thinking is necessary and how much should we avoid?  Be careful, I'm going to critique your response.  Also feel free to critique this post and tell us how you did it -- like how much critiqueness you employed.  The luke warm scale?  Or the critical scale?  Or are you on the lick my nuts scale?

No critical thinking needed here.  I save that for purported facts.  This is just questions to answer.  

IMO there is no such thing as too much critical thinking.  It's not just the internet.  It's always been necessary in books, newspapers, news etc.  How and why words are used often makes the difference between worthwhile information and a baseless pile of bullshit.

[JerrySTL ★]

Billions of people seem to get by with little critical thinking. 

[shootingstar]

10 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Critical thinking is the definition of woke, and is now banned in schools.

I wasn't aware. For sure, I don't see it in that narrow perception.  I guess a sad example right now, are certain book titles are banned by certain school boards or communities want such books erased from the library collection.  And they are books.  Parents worry over written stuff.... really they should worry more about some the visual stuff on "Net... worse than just boobs..

[JerrySTL ★]

8 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I wasn't aware. For sure, I don't see it in that narrow perception.  I guess a sad example right now, are certain book titles are banned by certain school boards or communities want such books erased from the library collection.  And they are books.  Parents worry over written stuff.... really they should worry more about some the visual stuff on "Net... worse than just boobs..

Last month's Reason magazine was all about banned books. Pretty amazing the books people want to ban and why.

The best way to get me to read a book was to ban it.

[shootingstar]

8 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

 

The best way to get me to read a book was to ban it.

So true.  

[donkpow]

27 minutes ago, Dottles said:

... critical thinking ... internet ...

2353 people laughing out loud photos

[BuffJim]

22 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Critical thinking is the definition of woke, and is now banned in schools.

Woke is very far from critical thinking. Red pill is critical thinking. Woke is blue pill. 

[shootingstar]

14 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

Woke is very far from critical thinking. Red pill is critical thinking. Woke is blue pill. 

I don't see it divided colours like that Jim. It's not productive either. There is sufficient areas of grey or purple.  Woke, not woke, just non-European experience and history in North America does require sometimes to listen about a history that has been shoved under the rug for decades or even centuries.

[Dottleshead ★]

54 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

No critical thinking needed here.  I save that for purported facts.  This is just questions to answer.  

IMO there is no such thing as too much critical thinking.  It's not just the internet.  It's always been necessary in books, newspapers, news etc.  How and why words are used often makes the difference between worthwhile information and a baseless pile of bullshit.

I know a lot of alcoholics that were/are critical thinkers.   They box themselves in and nobody can live up to their standards including themselves. Being critical of others and of oneself can be problematic if taken too far. I think most agree critical thinking is imperative but how much is too much?

[maddmaxx ★]

3 minutes ago, Dottles said:

I know a lot of alcoholics that were/are critical thinkers.   They box themselves in and nobody can live up to their standards including themselves. Being critical of others and of oneself can be problematic if taken to far. I think most agree critical thinking is imperative but how much is to much?

Critical thinking makes a hash of this statement.  Being critical of others and of oneself has little to do with critical thinking.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

 Critical thinking is not required for using the internet, because they can't put anything on the internet that isn't true.

I know this because I read it on the internet.

[Dottleshead ★]

5 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Critical thinking makes a hash of this statement.  Being critical of others and of oneself has little to do with critical thinking.

I love you max but I''m not really sure what you are saying here. Being critical does require critical thinking.  You can be wrong -- really wrong -- but you are thinking critical.

[Scrapr ★]

6 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

 Critical thinking is not required for using the internet, because they can't put anything on the internet that isn't true.

I know this because Abe Lincoln said it on the internet.

 

[maddmaxx ★]

12 minutes ago, Dottles said:

I love you max but I''m not really sure what you are saying here. Being critical does require critical thinking.  You can be wrong -- really wrong -- but you are thinking critical.

 

[Randomguy]

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

Critical thinking needs to be taught and infused into school subjects starting from elementary school upward. However always better to learn rather than never later in life.

Noooooooo!  How will the idiots scare others if more people are smart enough to see past their BS?

[Airehead]

1 hour ago, JerrySTL said:

Billions of people seem to get by with little critical thinking. 

My thought exactly. 

[Zephyr]

Lots of 'internet researchers' will claim that they are critical thinkers but in fact very few actually are.  Critical thinking implies an objective study of a subject.  Many people nowadays form an opinion without any or just very little information then spend their 'research' trying to support their opinion they have already formed.  

[Wilbur ★]

3 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Critical thinking needs to be taught and infused into school subjects starting from elementary school upward. However always better to learn rather than never later in life.

If they did that all the pc crap taught in grade school and post secondary would unravel. 

[Wilbur ★]

3 hours ago, Dottles said:

Be careful, I'm going to critique your response. 

Will it be a critical critique? 

 

[shootingstar]

16 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

If they did that all the pc crap taught in grade school and post secondary would unravel. 

I'm sorry....when I was in high school, there was no value for me to learn about the Crusaders in Europe in Gr. 9. Nor about the Magna  Carta, Battle of Hastings in Great Britain.  This was a mandatory course. Therefore I should learn all about CAnadian history....my own country's history as a priority.  Not about medieval history of a colonizing country.

I didn't even know about CAnadian history beyond the fur traders and 1867, 

Learning about the Chinese railroad workers is not about being politically correct. It is part of Canadian history. I didn't even learn about this history until I was....19 yrs. old!!  Learning when women won the right to vote in Canada...this vote was primarily for white women:  

On 24 May 1918, female citizens, not included under racial or Indigenous exclusions, aged 21 and over became eligible to vote in federal elections regardless of whether they had yet attained the provincial franchise.  (CAnadian Enyclopedia).  

The Chinese (men and women) born in CAnada, working and living in Canada weren't granted the right to vote by Parliament until 1947.  The Japanese-Canadians got it 1-2 years later. I believe the indigenous/First Nations women didn't get it still later.

History is ugly in some parts, and wishes to sweep all the other facts under the rug by a system that can make us ignorant/blind.

 

[Dottleshead ★]

30 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Will it be a critical critique? 

 

Maybe.   Should it be a boutique??

[Wilbur ★]

1 minute ago, Dottles said:

Maybe.   Should it be a boutique??

As long as it is unique. 

[Dottleshead ★]

2 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

As long as it is unique. 

Ha! A unique boutique that we can critique?

[Ralphie ★]

Colleges often say they teach it, but that was surely not my experience. I can’t remember any course atoll that featured that. Such BS.

 

[Randomguy]

29 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

Colleges often say they teach it, but that was surely not my experience. I can’t remember any course atoll that featured that. Such BS.

 

Colleges do teach it, kind of, but not overtly.  You have to figure out how what professors are really after, rather than what they say they are after.  You also have to figure out how to work functionary systems with rigid folks behind them, too.   Too bad that those are few examples in comparison to the things you also really need to know.  They could do better.

[Dottleshead ★]

1 hour ago, Philander Seabury said:

Colleges often say they teach it, but that was surely not my experience. I can’t remember any course atoll that featured that. Such BS.

 

I went to a liberal arts school w/ a degree in mathematics/computer science.  I got it and I learned how to communicate it.  A lot of engineers in my field don't like peeps like myself  that can keep up with them and write about it if necessary.  Hell even my spelling and grammar is pretty decent.  That really sets 'em back. Also should come as no surprise that I got an A in Argument and Debate class.  Off the record, I picked up some assholism unofficially.  Probably got an A in that too if I got graded but nice is better.  No not true.  I don't think I learned assholism until I started working in the dreaded tech biz. You gotta fight fire with fire sometimes and before you know it, you've picked up some not so friendly characteristics.

[jsharr ★]

I think I am pretty critical 

[Dottleshead ★]

4 hours ago, jsharr said:

I think I am pretty critical 

Of me I hope??  I'm still looking for folks to shed light on me.  I"ve been in a tailspin for a long time now and am having trouble gliding out of it.  Hell, even the fuel engines are misfiring.  SOS.

[MickinMD ★]

12 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Critical thinking needs to be taught and infused into school subjects starting from elementary school upward. However always better to learn rather than never later in life.

There are studies that show if you do not learn to think abstractly by age 12, the changes in your brain by that age lock-out the ability to do it well afterwards.

The same is true with language. In the 1600's to 1800's, one of the few jobs a deaf couple could get was operating isolated lighthouses.  Lone children who grew up in those lighthouses with deaf parents could not be taught language if they were 12 or older.  We can learn second languages later, but only because our brains learned what language is before that part of the brain stopped developing.  Cases where there was more than one lighthouse kid often resulted in the kids inventing a language from scratch to communicate with each other - after age 12 they could be taught English, etc. because their brains had developed with a language.

I taught Gifted and Talented Chemistry and Physics classes before they got dumbed-down by "No Child Left Behind," etc. and the kids REALLY had to be gifted to get into the class.  It was such a joy teaching those kids: I could zip through complex processes once and the kids got it and they wanted to get it.

Hopefully, there will be more attention to teaching elementary kids how to think, but in the USA, the assholes at the national level are more focused on rote memory tasks that are easier to measure so they make them the learning goals - displacing processing, critical thinking, and self-analysis on one's own thinking processes.

 

[Zealot]

10 hours ago, Zephyr said:

Many people nowadays form an opinion without any or just very little (selected) information then spend their 'research' trying to support their opinion they have already formed.  

No insult intended, but this applies to everyone. Just in varying degrees.

[Ralphie ★]

1 hour ago, Dottles said:

Of me I hope??  I'm still looking for folks to shed light on me.  I"ve been in a tailspin for a long time now and am having trouble gliding out of it.  Hell, even the fuel engines are misfiring.  SOS.

Unsticking yourself is not easily done.  Read Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss.  It may not help but it will make you smile.   

 

[Ralphie ★]

4 minutes ago, Zealot said:

No insult intended, but this applies to everyone. Just in varying degrees.

It is why epistemology is such an interesting field to me. How do we know things?  

[Zealot]

3 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

It is why epistemology is such an interesting field to me. How do we know things?  

👍🏻 

[shootingstar]

As a former librarian in law, engineering and govn't:   I will say that there's a huge chunk of written information  full articles,  that is not available on the open "free" Internet at all.

You either have to pay directly, have an employer pay for database licensed access and you access as an employee, have user access to your public library or university library.  

Even in my line of work, I would have to go via some of the above routes. Some of the professional associations require membership paid access before accessing their online resources specific to the profession. 

It doesn't mean everything is kosher there, but at least you would start from informater written by people who do have trained expertise in certain subjects.