Funnily enough, P and I were only discussing so-called confirmation bias yesterday as we – and everyone else probably – has become aware of the huge impact that social media had on recent important decisions such as Brexit and Trump elections.
I am always acutely aware that we tend to read stuff and talk to people that we’re interested in and this, of course, confirms our beliefs and strengthens them. I try very hard to stay open-minded and read other stuff that challenges my ‘norm’ if you like and, over the years, I think that has paid dividends and made me think a little more out of the box.
However, I think social media and the likes of Facebook and even Google News have become very clever at ‘learning’ what you like to read and it gives you links more and more based on your existing beliefs and thoughts. I said to P that one of my things for this year was to try and be more mindful of that cleverness and begin to offset it more.
Then, lo and behold, I see this blog post from Lynne McTaggart (WDDTY) who says virtually the same thing, more eloquently than I ever could, of course. She then goes on to detail some other salient thoughts about her new year’s resolutions which make you think. Have a read. I like the positive message she gives: