From “We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence” by David Dark
Here again, like printed material, the screen can be a tool in undertaking the essential and, to my mind, holy work of examining our own opinions in light of incoming data, of trying to become someone upon whom nothing is lost, someone who doesn’t settle for or succumb to unexamined opinions. Unexamined opinions have a way of becoming unexamined policies. To not slow down, check myself, or poke around to research whether or not what I’m saying, sharing, and getting worked up over is true is to be the target market, the easy prey of disinformation culture. Long before smartphones, it was observed that that life, the unexamined life, is not worth living.
“People are saying…” the saying goes. “Studies have shown…” “It says here that…” But the prophet side of my heart, like Patti Smith, is called to inquire further. Who said it exactly? What’s the context? Who paid for the so-called studies? Where we stand determines what we say and see.