( Seven minute read)
We don’t have to look far to see a prime example of this with the War in the Middle East.
We all know that history shows us that it is easy to start a war, never mind to stop it spreading, or to negotiate an end.
With current world leaders like the Donald Trump and Putin ( Which is scary to say the least) Critical Thinking appears to be might without any evidence of humanity.
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The wealth of communications and information can easily overwhelm our reasoning abilities.
In an age of computers, video games, and the Internet, there’s a growing question about how technology is changing critical thinking and whether society benefits from it.
It’s largely a product of our own invention—and a subjective one at that.
A greater focus on visual media exacts a toll, with creativity and critical thinking landing in a mushy swamp somewhere between perception and reality; measurable and incomprehensible.
Although technology alters the way we see, hear, and assimilate our world—the act of thinking remains decidedly human.
What’s more.
It’s ironic that with ever-growing piles of data and information it doesn’t equate to greater knowledge and better decision-making.
Developing our abilities to think more clearly, richly, fully—individually and collectively—is absolutely crucial [to solving world problems.
Computer technology has enhanced lives in countless ways, but the ability to think for oneself is in slow demise, not a sudden death.
We get comfortable with our choices, beliefs, and assumptions and are surrounded by people who agree with us.
The internet curate content that reinforces our existing beliefs. Confirmation bias makes us feel validated, even if we’re miles from the truth.
It’s so easy to get lost in digital chaos.
Purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments.
Overlay technology and that’s where things get complex. “We can do the same critical-reasoning operations without technology as we can with it—just at different speeds and with different ease.
Critical thinking is a muscle, and like any muscle, it needs exercise.
But we’re not exercising it enough.
We are overwhelmed by a constant barrage of devices and tasks.
Worse:
We increasingly suffer from the Google syndrome. People accept what they read and believe what they see online is fact when it is not.
Unfortunately, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection.
We’re too quick to accept information at face value. We’re more interested in headlines than understanding the objective truth.
Everything is suddenly getting worse.
It’s everywhere. In politics. Corporate systems. Government institutions so we’re entering living in permanent uncertainty.
Technology is changing the way we approach complex problems and conundrums, and making it more difficult to really think.
One thing is certain.
The United States, a country with a long history of democracy, is heading toward authoritarianism at a dizzying pace, literally day by day.
Autocracy, and toxic leaders in general, can be very attractive, especially to people who feel victimised.
When the USA elected Donald Dump Americans, the benefit of doubt they did not realize that they were electing not only a new leader but inadvertently ushering in a new form of government.
And this is why critical thinking is so important in real life,.
Plato and Aristotle both wrote about how the passions can influence our thinking.
Perhaps, after all these centuries, it is time to take their message seriously.
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