dis·cern·ment
/dəˈsərnmənt/
noun
1. the ability to judge well.
“an astonishing lack of discernment”
One thing that the younger generation has over the older generation, besides getting up stairs faster is they grew up with technology overload. By growing up in a world with data, facts and opinions at their fingertips they developed the ability to see all that information through a discerning and critical eye. They don’t automatically assume everything they read and agree with on the internet is true and everything they see and don’t agree with is false. This is not something older adults do easily. We grew up in a world where if it was printed it was true. Now, us oldies are thrown into a world where every piece of information we read contradicts the last thing we read and we don’t know how to handle it so we just start ignoring the ones we don’t agree with and call them “Fake News”.
How sad that with all this information available to us, we use it to prove a point instead using it to learn and grow and connect. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are starting to help us discern the substantive from the fluff, the real from the click-bait. Facebook now adds an information tag on many articles. But we have to do our part too and take advantage of that. So start using all the tools provided by this information age to seek out the truth for yourself. If you see a fact that doesn’t seem right or that feeds a bias you have, go check it out on sites like http://snopes.com or https://factcheck.org. There’s a good chance there’s just enough truth in the fact to keep a less discerning reader believing it but that doesn’t have to be you. Read an article from a news source you’re not familiar with? Check out the source on https://mediabiasfactcheck.com or the https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart. Having a news source that falls on the extreme left or right doesn’t mean they are spewing fake news; it just means they are picking the parts of a story to feed their narrative or agenda. Take the time to find the same story on other sites. Great places to get both sides of stories is https://www.theflipside.io/ and https://www.allsides.com/.
It’s time for all of us to take control of all of this information and use it to build up, not tear down. To bring together, not drive apart. To connect with discernment.
