During the 2020 calendar year, we have had many instances of observable truths, things that we know to be true because we have personally experienced them, and others have as well, beyond anecdotal concepts. During the long periods of time, many people were made to stay home, either by circumstances or a byproduct of the COVID virus, and this has given people time to not just think, but to consider priorities in their lives. Our intake of information is more than in previous years, especially true given the amount of time the average person has spent online this year. (Source) With great amounts of informational intake, we all should have a specific way of processing this data, having a logical structure of understanding what we are presented with, and how to analyze it, in regard to our own references are extremely important. Consider how you validate information, do you just accept what you read online or what you hear in the news, and do not give it a moment's second thought? Many people do, while this is unfortunate, it is to be expected of a significant percentage of the population. (Source Video / Dr. Jordan Peterson) Even though you may yourself be part of this group of people, and if you are reading this post, on this page, you likely are not, you should still continue to push yourself to develop systems of validation, justification, and reference whenever possible. This is exceedingly more important to what products that you intake online. Observed, identify, and remove the falsehoods, outright lies while taking note of the truths and information that is obfuscated by omission.
One of the biggest and most obvious tells of when a piece of information is not true, false, or limited intentionally because there is only one side being presented (obfuscation) to you is because the presentation is trying to convince you of something. It may be to think about a specific topic a certain way, it may be to take a specific action (to sign a petition, or to donate money more frequently), or just to share something like an all-black square because then you are doing something. The fact is that you are being subjected to an intentional formula of conversion through convincing. Someone is trying to make you think something that may not be true and only further investigation through research will almost immediately shed the light of truth onto any particular topic. But what about those topics which the light is a bit foggy on? What happens when "follow the science" is backed by every publication in a particular field, people are explaining things on the news, through your apps, on social media, and in the videos you watch. What happens when every post you see on a particular subject has a warning sticker on them, leading back to those very specific publications you already read and could not find any dissenting information on? You have several choices to make there and then, you can accept what you are being presented with as true without having done any investigating or researching yourself, this may be a typical process for your personal normative behavior. You may not be wrong or right to do this, in fact, we all do this in some way or another every single day of our lives. What I am asking you to do, in these very narrow paths between perceived truth and falsehood, is to not automatically accept what you are being told by numerous media outlets, social media, or even what I am saying here now, but to create a process for yourself so that you may automatically seek out the truths and falsehoods.
There will be times when you simply do not know the truth, you can infer something to be true but have no real way of confirming it is true, we all do this every single day with small things because they do not really matter or impact us in any real way. The second they do we begin to automatically seek out to validate our thoughts on the subject and if there is an urgency to discovering the truth we have a self-imposed desire, a need, a physical and emotional reaction to not getting it immediately. This instant gratification has been pervasive in our modern culture as this is due to our, aforementioned, ability to gain access to a lot of information quickly. Consider a cliffhanger of a popular show or movie in which the sequel will not be available for many months or even a year, the build-up of thoughts and sometimes an emotional response to finally being able to see the perspective conclusion. It is why we enjoy binge-watching a show or series of movies, we like knowing what's next, and in some way, the truth. How do we get there in our everyday lives? How do we seek out to find the factual portions of a piece of information over the false information?
The most formidable opposition to accepting that you may not find the answer to something, find its true meaning, or "know a thing" is ignorance, which is part of human error. Another part is lack of imagination of being in another person's position at a particular event, which is not to say using fantasy imagination, but considering what you would do if you were them, having the ability to logically and truthfully consider this is an important aspect of self-development as well. Then we have to specifically understand that everyone has inherent ways that we may, or may not, act upon and that is not specifically of other people though it may be, it is a personal filter of how we see and react to the world around us. We have to develop formulas and protocols for us to identify these issues within ourselves, have others identify them for us when we cannot do so, and then to make decisions knowing they may exist.
In the next year of 2021, go out of your way to verify the information you are being presented. This may result in you not being convinced of many things and skeptical of a great deal many more. That is good, you should work to be objective and not accepting of any side of a narrative especially when that narrative may be designed to make you convinced of something, to cause urgency in your life, or worse fear. Be very careful with the information you decide to accept as true and the people you decide to accept it from. There are many people out there who appear to have good intentions, who appear to be educated or experienced in a particular field but they are trying to get you to do something or convince you of something that may not be in your, or your communities, best interest. Be stingy with your commitment to an idea, research it, investigate it, figure out if it is worthy of your acceptance of it. It is better to be undecided rather than accept a falsehood.