There are some social media sites I just can’t read right now. Even people I know to be caring and loving are posting things viciously and unthinkingly cutting down people and groups. It’s time to take today’s Thursday Thought quote to heart.
Tag Archive for social media
A Good Time To Tell Them What You Think
Seems like those Presidential candidates don’t have a clue! Like all they want is to get elected. They don’t seem to care about injustices caused by our broken penal and immigration systems. It’s okay to try kids as adults, then throw them into adult prisons to harden and learn new criminal skills. Homeless, elderly, disabled people–all that matters is money and power, not lives and human dignity. If an issue strikes a moral chord with us, we should exert our influence. Now is the time to contact those candidates, letting them know what’s important to us and what they need to address if they want our vote. Remember, too, that they read newspapers, so write a letter to the editor. And social media, so post there. If you get a positive response, encourage others to express their opinions. If a candidate won’t listen, give your vote to someone who will.
Students and “Real” vs “Fake” News
One of the reasons I coached and taught high school speech and debate was my firm belief that everyone needs to have rational-thinking skills. (Okay. So I also loved interacting with kids who were smart and/or liked a challenge.)
I’m dismayed to see the Stanford study that shows that students, for the most part, are NOT ABLE to distinguish between news that is real and news that is fake.
So many false “facts” bombard us, most notably from the recent political campaigns but also via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Then it’s spread by well-meaning people on their own social media sites, through their emails, or by word of mouth–BEFORE reason has been applied or the “facts” checked for their accuracy or slant, which gives those “facts” a life of their own because more and more unthinking people accept them and pass them on.
The place to start is with those students. Teachers, parents, and friends should challenge them to THINK, to VERIFY, to APPLY REASON in everything they hear or read–to develop logical thinking skills.
Those skills have always been important; they’re needed even more today if our country and our human decency is to survive.