The Influence of The Internet on Critical Thinking

We use the internet on a daily basis. We browse Google, looking for shops, discounts or offers like the Ladbrokes Sign Up Offer, Instagram photos of our friends and potential crushes, Facebook, well… the scrolling is endless, but we surely have fun! However, there is a side to the internet that is not so fun and entertaining. The internet is a place which can teach us a lot of things, like stuff to avoid and stuff to embrace. It is full of content, which can be good and bad at the same time. The good comes from being able to find anything you need, and the bad that the content is not all that great. Some of the content is malicious, with viruses and other harmful things, to your computer and your emotional state. There are some areas of the internet which could disturb anyone.

With that in mind, the range of the things the internet can teach us, is broad. Among other things, we can learn to think critically and here is how.

Shady Sites – Data Submission Lessons

There are plenty of websites which deal with financial transactions. Some sites are very safe, like PayPal and Amazon, which have had over a decade to build their systems and security measures. But, there are some sites which you should avoid, never, ever, submitting data there, financial or otherwise.

These sites can be recognized by missing a secure connection certification at the left of the address bar. The browser will warn you if the connection to the site is not secure. Do have in mind that some sites have a secure connection only for their shop, which is a separate site, actually.

This lesson can teach you not to trust everything at first glance. Nice visuals can be misleading. Do your research on everything before you make a purchase, products and sites you purchase the products on, included.

Plenty of Content – Plenty of Misleading Nonsense

The internet is full of tutorials and guides, but some of them are either badly filmed or provide you with bad information. Running into such content can teach you a lesson if you decide to follow the guide and get to a bad result.

That is not the way you should learn your lesson, but rather, following the previous point of checking everything, looking at different sources, you can reach a conclusion that is much safer and closer to the truth, rather than blindly trusting a single source. For some products, that can be impossible to do, but as a general rule, products you can get no information on should be avoided.

Judging the Facts – Not Every Fact Weight the Same

Let us say you do find a seemingly good source of information and that they have a professional language. That kind of language might not mean anything if the information they are supplying you is irrelevant to your query. Likewise, someone speaking plainly and telling you stuff with an accent and an attitude may give you more information than your well-spoken source would. If you weigh the sources and measure them, you will know what they wanted to say and whether that is of any use to you. Discarding information and is as important of a skill as searching, online and offline.

 

Critical thinking can be sharpened by the internet. The overwhelming presence of the content forces you to adapt, pick, choose, discard and learn. Otherwise, you will be swept by the data and end up being the best of seven articles, without knowing why. Sharpen your skills and question the data presented to you, especially on well-worded sites.