Navigating the Truth

 

Photo by Hartono Creative Studio on Unsplash

Misinformation is a huge issue in today's digital age and landscape. As a student and young adult, I often worry about the things I see on social media and in the news because I typically wonder how true something really is. This is why I was excited to learn about Mike Caufield's SIFT method. SIFT is a tool that helps someone quickly evaluate online information and sources. It involves diving deeper into other online sources to help investigate the information being explained and allows us as researchers and social media users to figure out what sources are credible or not credible. This tool is so important in our world today because our digital landscape is flooded with information. And especially with the common use of AI, it can be so hard to figure out what is trustworthy and what is not! SIFT is an important tool that can help us be better informed and less fearful of what we choose to believe on the internet! 

This week, I decided to look through a couple of articles from Mike Caufield's Substack. The first was The Apple 'Reasoning Collapse' Paper Is Even Dumber Than You Think. From this article, I was able to gain insight into how Caufield believes humans think and how we believe that we have to have reasonable explanations for a lot of things, even if it is just a small change, such as leaving a few minutes early to go somewhere. He also explained that the methods Apple used to tell us their products were at a certain level did not accurately reflect the claims they made. I think this is a major takeaway because it emphasized the importance of Caufield's SIFT method, as even companies like Apple make questionable claims. Although we know they have great technology, it is still important to look into the claims they make and the reliability of their research! 

The second Caufield article I chose to look at this week was Copium Addicts: What 'misinformation' is actually usually about. I learned that misinformation isn't usually about trying to sway someone the other way, but rather using misinformation on both sides to push them further into what they already believe. Caufield's major example from this article was politics. He explains that both sides use information and pictures in their favor to push their believers further to the left or right. This honestly scares me a little as a young voter. I am worried for the future of voting because I think in today's digital landscape, we can be fed things that do not reflect who people actually are. It makes me wonder what the truth is and what we are being told simply because people believe it is what we as voters want to hear. This is another reason I think the SIFT method is so important. If we are able to figure out what the misinformation is, it can literally affect an outcome that may impact our entire country!