Using Your Emotions to Your Advantage & Twine!!

The first part of the title sounds like something you’d hear in therapy, but I think it’s the best way to describe chapter ten of Verified. Caulfield and Wineburg say that rather than completely shutting off your feelings when looking at online information (and potential misinformation), it’s better to think of them as a partner to your more rational self. Being able to make decisions and analyze information online while using methods and checklists is great and all, but it isn’t the end-all-be-all. You’ve got to be able to use the emotions you feel to make those decisions as well. We make the best decisions when we draw on the strengths of both our feelings and analysis. 

One of my favorite quotes from this chapter is “Compellingness isn’t your shovel. But it tells you where to dig.” I took from this that while something may be compelling to you, that doesn’t mean you should trust it. Just like with the American College of Pediatricians example, the look of the site was compelling, allowing the people in the study to trust the site. However, a quick Wikipedia search revealed that the site was not to be trusted. Therefore, while the people in the study were compelled by the professional look of the site, that doesn’t mean that it is to be trusted. Compellingness is a tell of where to start your research and start SIFTing. 

Another interesting aspect of this chapter was the authors’ discussion of surprise. While similar to and connected to compellingness, surprise is, as the authors say, a sign that our previous assumptions may be wrong about one topic or another. And surprise isn’t just something being different from what you expected; it has to be different to a degree that is significant enough to warrant a surprised reaction. Our expectations being surpassed in this way can be an indication that the context surrounding the surprising claim should make us rethink our reaction.   

That being said, I think that these skills and considerations are going to be super helpful in researching for our Interactive Nonfiction project. Being able to use my emotions such as surprise will be a great skill to have when looking at shocking news headlines or analyzing how we consume news has changed from “traditional media” to “new media.” Another aspect of that we could talk about could be how writing headlines has changed in order to capture readers’ attention and compel them to click on the article or watch the news segment or what have you.