One of the things we talked about this week and I think was very important was information overload. This is stress and confusion from too much information. I think most people these days struggle with this, I do. My understanding from the reading was that there’s too much data around us and not a lot of it can be turned into information or knowledge. I would say that most of the data around me is not useful in any way. I think most times we are just scrolling online through pointless information. Most of the media that we see is designed for some purpose, to buy a product, to scare us, to spread false information, etc. The list could go on and on.
We also talked about social tagging and algorithms. Social tagging is interesting because it’s a way for more people to see your post but also to find related posts. I always tag my blogs with digital writing and some other keyword that is relevant to what I wrote about. When I used to post on social media and want more people to see it, I would use a bunch of hashtags. It does help to bring more attention to your post, especially if you use popular tags. I do not understand how algorithms work and I find it to be fascinating. I think it’s crazy how my social media apps and websites are curated to show what I usually look at or spend most time on. I find it a little creepy in a way, but we sign up to share our information.
One of the other things we talked about this week was media biases. I think this is really important, I think most people don’t even realize biases a lot of the time. We talked about how biases influence our lives and I think they do a lot. We make choices off on biases and some we don’t even know what we are doing. I think it’s important to be extra self-aware.
We also talked about biases in the media and sources skewing one way or another. I found the interactive biases site to be really useful and important. I think it is especially important now more than ever to check where you are getting your information from. We talked about disinformation a little bit and I think it is something that has become more popular recently. It is incredibly hard to find unbiased information and credible sources these days, it seems like every source out there swings one way. I will be using the site more to check my sources.
In one of my other classes, we talked a lot about the media and why some things aren’t shared in mainstream media even though they’re really important. I think the media is heavily controlled and what is shared is controlled. I thought that was somewhat relevant to what we talked about this week. It is just critical to check your information always and I will be making sure to be more cautious about where I am reading my news from.
