Some nights (unfortunately not as many as I'd like) bed time goes so smoothly that I have time to read a book to my kids. Almost every time my daughter is provided with the opportunity to choose a bed time story, she chooses a quirky little book called Muddle and Match. Now, Muddle and Match is just as it sounds. You muddle through flaps to find a match between vibrantly colored and gregariously shaped animals and their parts, like Chester the cheetah and Barbara the beetle. My daughter giggles at the erroneous matches she creates, like cheetahs with beetle legs and beetles with cheetah heads. I inherently do too.
Every time I cozy up under the bedspread next to her and read this book I can’t help but think of the life lesson muddling through the matches furtively teaches. Life is a series of muddles that we incomprehensibly, at the time, try to match together to form a story that is all our own. At least this is the best definition of mine.
I can also use this metaphor every time I jump online or find myself sifting through google results. The interwebs are a vast and infinite source of knowledge….or ignorance. You choose. Either way, we are left with the task of muddling and matching information; deciphering facts from opinions, truths from half-truths from blatant lies. This seems even more ostensible at this very moment in time, when we are all quarantined to our homes and find ourselves with more interweb exploring time on our hands. I, for one, have found quite a few more opportunities to read Muddle and Match with my daughter. A true silver lining to a stormy cloud. On the other hand, for two, have found myself reading more and more online information and quizzically stating “how could that even be true?”
BBC Future Now, asked a panel of experts what they thought were the grand challenges we face in the 21st century. No surprise to me, a large number of these experts named the breakdown of trusted sources of information as a major challenge. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one that finds this distressing. The Pew Research Center also found that 64% of adults agree with me, that fake news stories cause a ton of confusion.
Barthel M, Mitchell A and Holocomb J. 2016. Many Believe Fake News is Sowing Confusion. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from: https://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/
However, that study also found that a majority of individuals believe they can tell when they are reading fake news. I’m going to go out on a limb here…. NO WAY! My facebook strolling says otherwise. The belief in your own capabilities are likely misguided.
Perhaps my opinions about the internet seem anecdotal. However, a study published in 2017 in PNAS by some folks in Italy found that “social media and microblogging platforms have radically changed the way we consume information and form opinions.” Results of the study showed that user polarization seems to dominate, confining users to a set number of pages. In fact, those who use facebook more tend to focus on a smaller and smaller number of news sources. These users tend to create a community of like-minded news sources and peers, segregating them from outside sources. This is alarming considering the vast amount of heterogeneous information that could be consumed on the internet.
So, not only do we encounter a ton of fake news, we also probably segregate ourselves from news that is true. Seriously disheartening.
I am almost positive that the dozens of technology pioneers, scientists, programmers and engineers alike, that worked to create the internet never imagined that children would be spending hours watching other children unbox toys AND THEN play with them. Or that currently one of the most asked questions of google is “what is a VSCO girl?.” I imagine they thought we will make factual knowledge free and accessible to all. We will advance all sectors of science and cure cancer or HIV. The PNAS research mentioned before also found that news shows the same popularity dynamics as kitten videos and selfies.
There are silver linings to this storm cloud too. During this crisis, the internet has allowed us to be together while apart. I have learned through a kahoot quiz and a zoom session that my cousins know absolutely very few life facts about each other. Through the same kahoot and zoom session we also unsympathetically and accidently informed a cousin that her guinea pig died. Major fail. Nonetheless, just this idea makes up for all the ignorance the internet highlights.
So, let me get to the point. I don’t want you to have to muddle and match truths and untruths.
I want you to have a source of information that supplies you with facts….well science facts (because that’s my background). The only way I can think to do this is to create a blog.
For some time now, I have been thinking about creating a blog. I've thought a lot about things like: focus, audience and contributors. I've tossed many ideas up into the air and that's where they've stayed. Until recently.
“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions....” I believe Lao Tzu, a great Chinese philosopher, can be credited for those words. I believe them to be true. They are in this case.
A few months ago I decided I was going to create an infographic/blog post assignment for a genetics course I teach. Then, dependent on the success of the assignment I would decide whether to actually create a blog or not. Well the students loved the assignment (or so some of them said-this could be a total farce), but more importantly I thought they did a really awesome job. I couldn't just let their creations sit on my desktop. I decided they needed to be shared. So, here I am, starting a blog. My thoughts are quite literally finally becoming my words. Consequently, some of the posts in this blog are contributions from Mount Aloysius College students; where I am a faculty member in the Science and Math department. These posts will begin with a little blurb about the student contributor and perhaps a short video if they felt so inclined.
I hope you find this to be a public forum/blog that provokes thought and ones rooted in facts. I hope the forum, itself, can provide you with answers. I, too, hope that you chuckle a little from time to time. Most importantly, I hope you find yourself relieved from muddling and matching. If even for just a moment.
And….really, what is a VSCO girl?
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