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Forced to survive in a torrent of information, we often find ourselves unable to separate the important from the unimportant. How to increase critical thinking, says psychotherapist Irina Panyukova.
Responsibility for incorrect perception of information lies with those who do not perceive completely. In many cases, the presentation of information is intentionally organized in a way that excludes or makes it difficult to critically evaluate it. There are special manipulation technologies for this. For example, the attention of the addressee is distracted from the main content and switching to the secondary. At the same time, the addressee’s focus of consciousness shifts, and criticality decreases.
The simplest and most familiar example: we look at the TV screen, we are shown happy people, a friendly, cheerful family. Our attention is occupied by their relationship. Then we are unobtrusively informed: if you buy something, then you will also become so happy and cheerful. First, a positive bright picture is given, and then an offer to buy something follows – as a way to achieve the same pleasant state. The viewer does not have time to understand that he will receive not at all what he is shown. This is how demand is formed, buying activity is increasing. A person buys what is offered, but, of course, does not get what he wanted. Purchasing cannot satisfy the need for intimacy and a good family. I will add that we live in a powerful stream of information, and often we are not able to evaluate it simply because of the amount.
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There are also psychological conditions and age-related features that reduce the criticality of understanding information. Children still have little experience and consciousness is not very developed. In adolescents, emotions prevail over reason – this is a feature of the teenage psyche. And the uncriticality of older people is often associated, firstly, with the habit of trusting the media, and secondly, with age-related physiological changes: a critical function depends on the work of the cerebral cortex, which is disrupted due to vascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and long-term hypertension. illness. A decrease in criticality can also be observed in adults – when they are tired, have not had enough sleep, and are hungry, for example, due to a strict diet with protein and glucose restriction.
Hence the conclusion: in order to reasonably evaluate the information that comes to us, we should eat regularly, get enough sleep, and be in the fresh air.
Our daily environment also carries information that affects our condition, although we are most often not aware of it. The landscape of the industrial zone or the third ring is tedious and monotonous, it has no aesthetic value and exhausts us.
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It is useful from time to time to arrange days of psychological unloading for yourself – when there is a minimum of information, and at the same time it is healthy and useful. For example, spending a whole day in nature – what we learn from the forest, air and water will surely benefit us.
Once a month, several psychologists, writers, and cultural figures gather at the oval table in the Psychologies editorial office. Each of them tells what worries or interests him today. One common topic is chosen – and each of the guests writes a short text. As a result, we get a three-dimensional picture – several opinions on one issue. The theme of our latest Oval Table is “Uncritical Attitude to Information”.