Our perspective and the truth:

As technology continues to develop, we start to rely more and more on technology to perform our daily tasks. The purpose for new technology is to help in our daily lives and make things easier to complete. The internet is something that is used lots, but many to search ideas, get new information and communicate through social media. Through the internet we are presented with lots of information that cycles the web. This information can be either true facts or false information spread by users. When watching the Ted Talk “How to see past your own perspective and find truth” by Michael Patrick Lynch key ideas on setting aside your bias and finding the actual truth was explained.

Within the video “How to see past your own perspective and find truth” important ideas about getting information and our bias on topics were being discussed that gave a perspective on our society today. Lynch states “it seems as if the more information we share and access online, the more difficult it can be for us to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake. It’s as if we know more but understand less”. This say a great deal about our society because there’s so much information that’s available to us which should be a positive to the development of technology, yet most times we can’t even trust the information that’s out there without researching it which many don’t take time to do. Lynch says “Believe in truth. We disagree so much as if there’s no facts no more. We can’t step out of Our biases”. Being bias towards ideas that we oppose helps contribute to the idea of skepticism. Like lynch continues to say, “skepticism about truth can be tempting, because it allows us to rationalize away our own biases”. This is a way we justify our biases by doubting the truth.

The concept of associating certain information as “Fake news” is another form of bias since this information is something that opposes that persons viewpoints. According to Lynch “The fake news that spread on the internet during the American presidential election of 2016 was designed to feed into our biases, designed to inflate our bubbles…. now just means: ‘news story I don’t like’. That’s an example of the bad faith towards the truth that I’m talking about.”. When you are telling the truth to someone it has some form of perspective especially when it’s something you advocate for or you feel strongly about. Putting your perspective aside to see the truth is difficult since people need to come to realization that us humans don’t know everything and can together find a common reality, truth.

“Democracies can’t function if their citizens don’t strive, at least some of the time, to inhabit a common space, a space where they can pass ideas back and forth when — and especially when — they disagree. But you can’t strive to inhabit that space if you don’t already accept that you live in the same reality. To accept that, we’ve got to believe in truth, we’ve got to encourage more active ways of knowing. And we’ve got to have the humility to realize that we’re not the measure of all things.” This was said by Lynch towards the end of his speech, to see the truth you need to accept the reality we all live in and that we do not know everything. When you can put your biases aside you can put your perspective aside and be able to find the truth.

 

Work Cited:

Lynch, Michael Patrick. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, 2017, www.ted.com/talks/michael_patrick_lynch_how_to_see_past_your_own_perspective_and_find_truth/transcript#t-853032.