My reading and critical thinking...hmm.
I think I do try hard to critically think about literature that I'm reading even if it's newspapers or magazine articles. As I read something I try and stop every once and a while to absorb properly what I've just taken in. I think of the immediate ideas that come to me and see if they are valid. Then I try and be objective and look at things from different perspectives. I have noticed doing this actually sometimes changes my mind completely that my first initial ideas and I think that's great.
I think that's why I like discussions so much because talking with others pulls these ideas from you and others. Reading the same book by many people your reading it with many different ideas and backgrounds of others.
I do have the focus to critically think, which is good. I can say focused on a subject for long periods of time. My problem is forming that into words with proper organization. I think note taking is a great tool I've leaned to use to help keep track of these thoughts.
I think critical thinking I bring to most parts of my life. I have to thoroughly think of every decision I make. I think of different outcomes good and bad from the decisions. I think this is a good quality, but I'm clearly lacking in the spontaneity on life. I don't have problems making decisions I have a problem making them at a split second, I need a minute.
I analyze the media constantly! I watch television and get angry because I know what they're doing!
I know the shows I watch why are there so many tampon and acne medicine commercials? They play on insecurities of people to live to this impossible standard. You can't be fat if you are go on this diet and eat these foods. You can't have acne, if you do buy this product and you will be smiling and pretty too. You can't be ugly if you are buy this make up and you won't be.
Oh I hate the media. The news is a joke seriously. The "news" that's being reported is about Charlie Sheen and his reckless life, whole gives a damn.
I feel like I don't even know where to get honest news, maybe there is no such thing.
I listen to KCRW and hear news on that radio station because usually I like many of the shows they air. My favorite, This American Life. Awesome!
But I feel any news I hear is going to be bias. Well I guess that's faulty to say because of course it is going to be, because everyone has there own ideas and take in things differently. So I guess the best way to go is gather information from many sources and make my own decisions from that. By critically thinking about everything all the sources I'm getting I can better understand the world around me.
I think critical thinking is something hard to do. It's about focus and pushing yourself to a better understanding. I try and push myself each semester. I know what I am capable of working under pressure or completing deadlines in a pinch. I like to test myself each semester because I think I'm completely capable. I have to be.
Ultimately what critical thinking means to me is exploring ideas to a greater level that you can't do just by reading text. You have to search harder through reading other texts of relating ideas or similar situations or rereading and exploring your own ideas over and over again. By pushing yourself to lengths that different light bulbs in your head have for the first time come on. And with that amazing cool things are realized through simply reading and thinking.
I think this class will end with myself having a greater respect for more literature and the intellectual world (my respect is always growing by the way). I hope to have a greater understanding of analyzing books and others ideas. I I hope to gain different views from others not just from the books we're reading but also from the other students in the class.
I think I know how to research as in find relating information, but the combination of it all is where it turns sour. So I hope to make it much sweeter, and I know this will only happen if I put in the work to make it happen.
That sounds like a lot of critical thinking to do even when you are reading magazines or newspapers, are you an English teacher too? I find it difficult to have that discipline of constantly using my critical thinking skills and trying to absorb the information like you do. I agree that looking at things from different perspectives so that you can get a better idea on what position you will take. That fact that you come up with a completely different conclusion is great and scary at the same time. I feel it’s scary because image all of the decisions we make in life in the heat of the moment and don’t use critical thinking. Think of all the damage that can be done by rushing decisions that are critical and therefore should be handled with critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteI dislike the media very much as well. All these messages and ideas they are trying to put in our minds about life, health, and values are basically trash. And if I hear one more thing about Mr. Sheen’s drug rampage I am going to cancel my cable. The things that they publish and find important are a total joke and worse thing is that it sets a back example of the United States to the rest of the world.