Critical thinking is a key component of Critically Empowered. It's also essential to consuming media in a healthy way. That being said though, what is critical thinking?
Taking Off the Rose-Colored Glasses
Have you ever heard the phrase "rose colored glasses"? It basically means viewing things through the lens of your own emotions, opinions, and experiences - a subjective point of view. This kind of viewpoint can prevent you from seeing the true qualities of ideas and put you in a position where you are unintentionally supporting or internalizing hurtful ideas.
According to Oxford languages, critical thinking is defined as
the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment
By this definition, critical thinking is a way of viewing and analyzing information around you without bias or assumption. So it allows you to remove those "rose-colored glasses". Critical thinking encourages us to think objectively which allows us to reach a point beyond our own personal thoughts and feelings on a subject and instead focus on the absolute worth of a piece of information.
Implementation
When can we use critical thinking? And why would we want to?
In this age of non-stop information, it is important now more than ever to understand what aspects of media are truthful and how media can affect you personally. With social media and instant messaging giving us constant updates about the world, it is easy for misinformation or harmful ideas to slip into our everyday thoughts in the form of the media we consume. Critical thinking can be used though to see through our initial reaction to a piece of media, and understand it in it's barest, most objective form. You can use critical thinking just by taking a little extra time when considering the media you read, see, and hear everyday, thinking about how this piece of media makes you feel, what it makes you think, and how those thoughts might impact others around you.
Impact
Being able to separate ourselves from the way that media wants us to think or feel is important because it allows us to keep from internalizing toxic ideas - meaning that we don't immediately make bad thoughts, stereotypes, or messages presented in media part of our identity or emotions. Critical thinking lets us rationalize (meaning, think through) what we are seeing before internalizing it (meaning, let it affect our emotions/behavior/thoughts) so that we are aware of how that piece of media may make us think and can choose to avoid it's influence if we want. Our constant exposure to media makes us particularly vulnerable to mental health issues that stem from a low sense of self worth. Critical thinking helps us take a step back from feeling bad about how our lives compare to those presented in media and can also help us to be more understanding of those whose lives are different from our own. Stereotypes we see in media can impact both our perceptions of ourselves as well as our perceptions of other people, generally creating a negative atmosphere for everyone.
Understanding what critical thinking is, how you can use it, and why it is important will set you up to be more aware of how your mental health is swayed by the world around you and prepare you to take on other content on this website and in our workshops.
Don't forget to check out our social media posts on Critical Thinking and Media too!
コメント