Week 9 – Abbey Smith

Chapters 8-9 of Verified were quite interesting, especially from Chapter 8. I’ve always been interested in the mechanics of propaganda, or anything related to it. It’s mind-blowing just how susceptible our minds are to something that on the outside is blaringly false. Something I think I should consider more often is how shorter videos are more likely to be false, or intending to misinform its audience. It’s so easy to look past that because in the age of TikTok and Reels, we are conditioned for short content, which makes us more likely to fall victim to propaganda or altered information. This chapter made me reevaluate a lot about the videos I am consuming and reminds me to be more mindful of what each video I see means.  

In the last two chapters I liked the discussion of how much we are compelled to learn something and how our own emotions affect what information we are retaining. It was a nice reminder that emotions are not necessarily a bad thing when conducting research. It’s good to have a balance of both emotion and crticial thinking. You can rely on just one of those aspects. It was interesting to learn how emotions can drive us to find what we are looking for and help to focus in on what you’re trying to find. But again, to not let it take over too much of the research process. Critical thinking and evalution cannot be completely written out.  

These last few chapters of Verified were very insightful. Really, I found the whole book to be pretty insightful and very useful for living in the age of technology. I feel as if in my blog posts I have said multiple times that the book feels like “common sense” or things I was already aware of, but what I didn’t realize is it was things I wasn’t acknowledging. It was an easy read because I thought to myself that I should know these things when conducting research on the internet. But how often was I actually considering these techniques at fact checking? Not as often as I should. The book as a whole was a nice reminder and maybe even a slap in the face as to how important, and really easy, it is to fact check a simple claim. Misinformation is a huge obstacle for today, especially with the growing prominence of A.I, so I believe I will keep referring back to this book and the notes I took from it in the future.