It fills me with such sadness, and yet relief that we have finished our discussion on Verified. But frant not fellow classmates, for I believe we will be discussing Verified and the methods that it taught us for the rest of the semester… Also, if you have Goodreads, you can add this book to your read list (one more book closer to your reading goal! Woohoo!).
Enough of that… what did we take away from the last couple of sections of our beloved Verified?
Well, for starters, we discussed how emotions and the element of surprise can be a useful tool for SIFTing out false information. In this section we get a few sentences that sums up the idea of using emotions as a weapon against the evil internet. Caulfield and Wineburg write, “Surprise doesn’t just indicate that something is different from what you expected. It indicates that it is different in a way or at a level that is significant” (200). The idea that the element of surprise can actually be a pinpoint for something being off is helpful for people trying to see if something is real or not. If you have never heard something similar to the claim, and the solution seems random or outrageous… most times that is in indicator something is up, and you need to do more research.
Another thing we discussed about the final chapters in Verified, was the idea of critical ignoring, which was something I do on the regular. Critical ignoring is ignoring articles or news claims that you have a feeling are fake, but don’t want to get into the rabbit hole of claims, sources, etc…
The idea of critical ignoring is something I do on the regular. Sometimes my social media will spit out something outlandish, and I just scroll past it. Sometimes it’s smarter not to give false information a time and day. Also, it should be noted that critical ignoring is about helping you think less on false information, so you can think more effectively about real claims.
On top of all of this, we started to discuss Twine, and even got back into our Interactive Nonfiction groups to work through our projects! This has been so exciting to me, and I have a lot of fun in my group. I am excited and eager to play everyone’s game.
Overall, I wish you and your groups good luck with the creation of y’all’s games! It can be tricky, but it will be so worth it when we can all exchange games at the end of the semester.
Comments
One response to “Saying Goodbye to Verified + Twine”
It’s definitely bittersweet finishing Verified, but like you said, the lessons will stick with us for the rest of the semester. Possibly even past that since these are skills we may use in our everyday life. I really appreciate the way you highlighted the idea of surprise as a red flag for false information. The element of surprise is such a useful tool to gauge whether something is off, especially when we encounter claims that seem too outrageous or unfamiliar. As for critical ignoring, I completely get where you’re coming from. I also tend to scroll past anything that seems dubious, especially on social media. It’s a good strategy for maintaining mental peace, but it’s also been a reminder to balance that with being more proactive in verifying when something feels important or significant. Sometimes something is so outlandish that I can’t simply scroll past it. Lastly, I’m also really hype about the Twine project and am excited to see whatever is doing. I think it is a great way to show off a lot of what we’ve learned this semester while also making it into something fun and creative.