Tag: Misinformation

Garbage In Garbage Out

We said it all the time when I was growing up – garbage in, garbage out. That could mean what we read affected how we wrote. It could mean setting up a math equation incorrectly would yield an incorrect answer. It could mean that if we entered meaningless data, the computer would spit out garbage results.

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We often learned the hard way just how true the statement was. What is startling to me currently is that we don’t seem to recognize garbage as garbage. And when someone questions the garbage, we double down and choose fantasy if it serves our purpose. This is concerning.

I’m not saying people can’t view things differently or have a different opinion about things. Each of us will naturally perceive a given situation in a slightly different way. But I’m seeing people detaching their realities from documentable facts.

If you’re five and still have an imaginary friend, that may be okay. But if you’re an adult making life altering decisions, we’re in a dangerous ballpark.

Skepticism is good. Discernment is critical!

Want to tell me to hush, you’ll just use AI? Think of it this way. If you are not discerning, you can’t use AI well. You’ll be fooled when it fails a task only slightly less complicated than the car wash test. https://cybernews.com/ai-news/ai-car-wash-test/

If friends, instructors, or mentors keep harping on you learning critical thinking, they may believe you lack discernment. If you’re making life decisions then suffering consequences others deem predictable, you may need to improve your insight and judgement.

The good news is, discernment can be cultivated.

Start carefully observing what’s around you in real life. In other words, open your lying eyes and believe them.

Get as close as you can to the facts. When someone in your circle starts ranting about a person or event, before forming an opinion, get information directly from the source or a source as close to the facts as you can get.

Dig deep. Let curiosity take you to find background information that gives context or history.

Read widely. Whether or not you agree, it’s good to explore different trains of thought. If you read something that seems plausible, vet some sources and explore it further.

Put your feelings aside. Just because you feel a certain way about them doesn’t affect the facts. Don’t ignore a field expert just because you don’t like their life philosophy unless you can document that that philosophy is prompting them to spread misinformation.

Ask questions. Consult friends, colleagues, or acquaintances who are not in your primary circle. Do they have additional information you can explore? What are their thoughts on the issue?

Be skeptical about everything including your motives. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to be led astray because we don’t want to challenge long-held beliefs or because we’re having an intellectually lazy moment.

Read old books and documents. It may be hard to gather facts in this age of misinformation. Reading a variety of old books and studying historic documents in museums can help inform your opinion. Use what you learn as a standard for judging new information.

Accept that you can’t always get what you want. Life is hard and tough decisions are sometimes required.

Reject hubris. Recognize that whether or not you have influential friends, hold a position of power, or can buy anything you want, you are not more deserving than anyone else. This will help prevent you from amassing facts solely to support your self-importance.

Yesterday, I read 3 or 4 recently published articles and realized when I finished I had learned exactly nothing. These articles weren’t harmful, but they also weren’t helpful. Sometimes things that waste your time are garbage too.

There’s a wealth of learning to be had. There’s important work to be done. And there’s tons of fun along the way. But it’s safest if you avoid consuming garbage.

Appearance or Substance

Which do you look for, appearance or substance? Appearance may make something look a certain way to certain people, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. As we have been inundated with the headlines we’re fed by algorithms and news outlets that need clicks, the effect of shallow, surface ideas, idle ramblings, and suppositions have insinuated themselves into conventional wisdom.

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Less and less information is examined closely before publicly-shared opinions are issued. Once that happens, fact-based presentations carry less weight and it becomes easier to believe misinformation.

It also becomes easy to substitute another’s supposition for fact or delude ourselves and substitute another’s supposition for fact. Social media algorithms prey on the rage factor that often results from this and builds upon itself. Clickety, click, click, click.

Conventional wisdom used to spawn clichés like, don’t judge a book by its cover because we knew that appearance didn’t necessarily represent the substance of the tome. Now, we worry about the time spent on phones.

But isn’t how we spend that time on the phone just as critical? If we limit ourselves to 10 minutes per day, but spend that 10 minutes consuming shallow, biased, misleading information it can still cause harm.

When you’ve done careful, in-depth research and know your facts are solid, it’s difficult to have a conversation with someone who got their information on the same subject from reels. I understand reels are more entertaining, but they’re fed to you by something that doesn’t care whether the content is accurate or misleading.

One result of relying on reels is that medical or psychological terminology can morph into inaccurate descriptions. A person recently described themself to me as an empath, but nothing I know about them and nothing they said would indicate they fit the term I’m familiar with.

They said they believed this because of a reel they had watched. Further examination revealed they were conflating empathizing and being an empath.

According to Psychology Today, my experience was reflective of the influence of a reel similar to one on gaslighting forwarded to Adi Jaffe, Ph.D. that “was well-produced, with clean edits, beautiful shots, and audio. There was only one problem — it greatly distorted the whole concept it was discussing. Instead of defining gaslighting (which itself is not truly a clinical psychology term), the video insisted that when someone close to you tries to sell you on their (presumably different from your own) worldview, they are gaslighting you. But that’s not what gaslighting means at all. Traditionally, when someone tries to gaslight you, they are purposely lying to you about reality in order to make you mistrust your own sense of reality. The whole concept of gaslighting is about a deliberate distortion of truth to gain a psychological advantage over another. Having a different viewpoint from someone else is not gaslighting!”1

These may be only two examples, but I encounter something similar multiple times per week. The proliferation of misunderstanding in a large portion of the population means you I often get caught off guard because people have a vastly different understanding of terms I’ve known for years.

The discomfort this creates for me is unimportant. The disconnect between health facts and fiction created through amplified misunderstanding and misinformation presents a danger greater than we may realize.

Valuing substance over appearance can help guide you to more reliable information and sources. There are licensed professional experts creating substantive online courses (some are free) that deal with the same issues you see in reels. Choose those.

There are professional experts on Bluesky. Find some. Vet them. Follow the ones who are credible. Same with Substack and podcasts. There’s nothing wrong with getting information online. It’s the quality of that information that matters.

To be safe, choose substance over appearance.

1)  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-addiction/202505/tiktok-therapy-the-pros-and-cons-of-social-media-psychology

Unacceptable

The toll of seeing what’s unacceptable looms large. This post is aimed more specifically than most. It is not for those who find it easy to accept what’s put in front of them at face value, go with the flow, and find the best in everything. This post is for those who see and tell the truth amidst dysfunction because it is who they are.

We grow up filling certain roles within our families. Sometimes those roles vary over time. But there seems to be a class of folks who early on see dysfunction and refuse to participate. They question. They don’t enable. They instinctively don’t divulge personal details or engage with manipulative behavior. They know when parents are lying even if that lie is just how the parent feels about what they’re saying.

Young child stands in front of blank wall clothed in a pink tutu.

All children are willing to speak truth that is socially unacceptable for adults to voice, but truth seers go beyond that. Truth seers understand manipulation before they know the word. They know violence and abuse are wrong, sometimes before they can verbally describe the terms. They often recognize subtle hypocrisy and bias.

If you are one of those children who has grown into an adult, you are well suited to meet difficult moments. You’re able to sort through information and discern the best steps for you to thrive. Bucking your family’s traditions in order to keep yourself healthy is most likely a simple extension of behavior you routinely embrace.

What can we possibly offer you?

The knowledge that we see your courage as you hold positions supported by science, history, and experience in the face of a majority that disparages those positions. The understanding that it can be lonely and exhausting to continue to hold the line against popular myths and deliberate gaslighting. The assurance you are not alone

We know your sense of loss and the grief it brings. We know the feeling of futility that can momentarily overwhelm. And we know your resilience.

You are poised to be an agent of change. You meet the moment. You sustain yourself and better the rest of us.

We do not doubt your intentions when you tell us hard truths. We will consider observations that make us uncomfortable and offer a chance to explore our beliefs and motivations.

We won’t abandon you over something minor, and we reserve the right to adjust, rethink, and counterargue when we find your truth at odds with ours.

We recognize what is true for us may not be true for you. We know you understand this. And we know you see vastly larger truths that affect us all.

We stand in solidarity with truth seers, truth speakers, and brave leaders who support good health, compassionate lives, and a dedication to the betterment of ourselves, our communities, and our world. We want you to thrive so that all of us can thrive.

Thank you for travailing the loneliness and isolation of standing against waves of misinformation, mischaracterization, and general wisdom that isn’t wise at all.

Seeing unacceptable truths is hard. Disparaging you and the truth you represent is also unacceptable.