For a moment, think about the last thing you looked up on the internet. What resources did you use to look up whatever it was? How did you go about choosing the websites to look at that you did? What were your criteria for determining if you thought the website was helpful or not? Did you just go with the first thing you saw and, if so, why did you take that approach?
I realize that taking the time to do these things I just wrote perhaps seems like a waste of time. You just do it. You "just know" if you can trust what you see or not. You "just know" how to interpret what you see and how to understand it. It's kind of like watching the news. You "just know" that the reporters are just reporting the news. You "just know" that they are presenting it objectively, without any attempt to steer your way of thinking. Or, is that really the case?
Up front, I want to say this. Reflection is difficult. It is difficult to slow yourself down, ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing, to ask what you are trying to accomplish. It's difficult to ask yourself why you trust this information instead of that information. Shoot, most of the time we haven't taken the time to reflect on why we even are looking for what it is that we are looking for. We haven't taken the time to reflect on our motivations and instead are just doing it.
The day and age we live in is full of information. It's also full of knowledge. The amount of information we have access to is exponentially more than what previous generations had access to. It would therefore stand to reason that we should be all the more reflective of the information we are looking at. We should look at it critically (and for those who may not get this word "critically", by it I mean that you ask yourself why it is deemed trustworthy, not that you are being negative toward it). Since there is so much out there, we need to work toward wisdom to understand what we are looking at, why we are looking at it, and what we hope to accomplish by looking at it.
Reflection isn't just something that I am encouraging you to do from time to time. It is actually a lifestyle. It guides you to know yourself better, your strength areas, your weak areas. It gives you a clearer picture of who you are, and of why you do the things you do. Most of us assume we know these things, but I would dare say that taking some time to reflect might actually open our eyes a bit, and not always in painless ways.
So next time you are looking for something on this world wide web, think about why you are looking at it. Think about what it is telling you, and why you are processing it the way you are. Start reflecting on it, even if only for a moment. Perhaps that moment of reflection will lead to you learning something about yourself, which is far more valuable than whatever you may have been looking up.
I realize that taking the time to do these things I just wrote perhaps seems like a waste of time. You just do it. You "just know" if you can trust what you see or not. You "just know" how to interpret what you see and how to understand it. It's kind of like watching the news. You "just know" that the reporters are just reporting the news. You "just know" that they are presenting it objectively, without any attempt to steer your way of thinking. Or, is that really the case?
Up front, I want to say this. Reflection is difficult. It is difficult to slow yourself down, ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing, to ask what you are trying to accomplish. It's difficult to ask yourself why you trust this information instead of that information. Shoot, most of the time we haven't taken the time to reflect on why we even are looking for what it is that we are looking for. We haven't taken the time to reflect on our motivations and instead are just doing it.
The day and age we live in is full of information. It's also full of knowledge. The amount of information we have access to is exponentially more than what previous generations had access to. It would therefore stand to reason that we should be all the more reflective of the information we are looking at. We should look at it critically (and for those who may not get this word "critically", by it I mean that you ask yourself why it is deemed trustworthy, not that you are being negative toward it). Since there is so much out there, we need to work toward wisdom to understand what we are looking at, why we are looking at it, and what we hope to accomplish by looking at it.
Reflection isn't just something that I am encouraging you to do from time to time. It is actually a lifestyle. It guides you to know yourself better, your strength areas, your weak areas. It gives you a clearer picture of who you are, and of why you do the things you do. Most of us assume we know these things, but I would dare say that taking some time to reflect might actually open our eyes a bit, and not always in painless ways.
So next time you are looking for something on this world wide web, think about why you are looking at it. Think about what it is telling you, and why you are processing it the way you are. Start reflecting on it, even if only for a moment. Perhaps that moment of reflection will lead to you learning something about yourself, which is far more valuable than whatever you may have been looking up.
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