I’m a tad conflicted about consuming opposing viewpoints. While I try and read a variety of sources, and will double check most stories of note, there is a line I try not to cross. Because of a general distrust of sources available to us, there seems to be a growing view that the average must be true—and to that end, seeking out opposing extremes to balance out that average. Major news outlets are hiring token people from “the other side” to appear more balanced, and people want to read both sides to help keep themselves balanced.
Except sometimes one side is very, very wrong. John Oliver did a bit about this with climate science, showing that a one-on-one debate about whether climate change is real simply does not represent the problem correctly. There is a debate, it just needs to take some basics for granted before it can be nuanced, and unfortunately “both sides have merit” often includes a harmful view that doesn’t deserve the time. I’ve recently become refamiliar with the saying “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. More so in the format: Those who know nothing think X Those who know some things think Y Those who know many things think X We tend to be the first group about most subjects, and the second group about some. And therefore many debates feel like they’re between people who don’t know much except that they’re right, and those that seemingly know more but have ended up with the wrong conclusion. And so I end up conflicted about how to learn more without adding to the noise. On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 8:14 AM Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > This piece [1], on one of THE hotbutton topics of the last year, caught my > attention. The background of the writer (one of Facebook's earliest > investors and a longtime mentor of Mark Zuckerberg) makes it more > disquieting. It's a long but worthwhile read, which I recommend. > > The need for being open to viewpoints other than ones own has never been so > stark. > > Speaking for myself, > > * Online (primarily facebook) - I deliberately follow people whose > viewpoints I find toxic, or even completely alien. I also use forums like > silk to practice "having my mind changed". > * Offline - I have a goal of meeting at least one new interesting person a > week, a goal I have successfully met for over a decade. And, of course, > there's The Goa Project, which I do explicitly in order to meet new > interesting people. > > What steps are folks here taking to avoid filter bubbles? > > Udhay > > > [1] > > https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january-february-march-2018/how-to-fix-facebook-before-it-fixes-us/ > > -- > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > -- Cheerio, Ashim D’Silva Design & build www.therandomlines.com instagram.com/randomlies
