Writing Journal Assignment #1

Andrew Connaughton
Eng1050 – 20
Writing Journal Assignment #1

I found the article "Truth: can you handle it?" to be very interesting especially because it is so applicable to me. It made me think back to how many websites I've quoted doing research for various papers and projects. I now wonder whether the "facts" I quoted were even true, someone could have made them up or, even worse, I could have fallen victim to "collateral misinformation." I definitely agree with the popular information idea where facts are now often determined by a majority vote, and not by whether they are true or not. All of my teachers in high school would not accept wikipedia as a source for doing research and this article helped me see why. I think that our generation is used to having everything done much faster than the previous. We have little patience and would rather do a Google search than walk to the local library to take out a book. It is not surprising that Hilary Swain only takes 5 minutes to look for a fact before giving up because we are so used to having all the information fed to us through the Internet. I think that if a student is assigned to research an idea or opinion that is contrary to their belief, they may learn something. Everyone has beliefs and often times doesn't care what the other side believes. If they are forced to see an issue from another point of view then maybe they will become more empathetic and not more ignorant.