Recently, my brother surprised me by telling me that he believes seed oils are incredibly unhealthy and one of the reasons he now rarely eats out at restaurants. The surprise was not so much the information on the dangers of seed oils, which is debatable, but hearing it from my brother, who, upon further probing, appeared to be merely repeating social media chatter. With the current US administration and its health secretary, we are being flooded with information related to the Make America Healthy Again movement that is questionable, at best. In the world of social media there is so much information being put out every day, that it is increasingly difficult to sort the useful from the noise.
There is also a tendency for influencers to repeat other peoples’ ideas, without questioning the validity of the source. In the endless quest for likes and followers, there is an incentive to generate continuous content that can lead to misinformation, or simply providing an echo chamber for other users’ thoughts. One sees this in the internet (and traditional) news cycle. A health or wellness story will arrive and immediately be rewritten, paraphrased and shared, so that it will appear to come from multiple sources, when in fact it comes from one location. The rush to be relevant and to fill the news void is more important than verification or providing original content.
These tendencies are exacerbated by the amount of chatbots online that mimic actual voices while merely adding to the noise. Whenever we encounter something that grabs our attention, we are tasked with asking, why is this important? What does this source want from me? Is it helpful? Is it an attention grab? Is it a product that I need to buy for my health and happiness?
There is a difference between critical thinking and cynical thinking. Not every idea must be rejected out of hand. Rushing to a decision is risky. So is altering one’s world view based on a charismatic story. Carefully listening, without pre-judgement, is an important skill. Time becomes our ally. Do we need to reply to that email right now? Is the fiery comment on a post necessary, or can it wait? Often giving time and space, responding rather than reacting, can lead to better outcomes.
Meditation helps one in many ways. One of which is that it assists one in being present in the here and now. It slows down time allowing us to have a moment to observe our feelings as they come up and gives us an opportunity to respond mindfully as opposed to reacting. In person, that moment can be the difference between having a positive, engaging interaction and devolving into an argument. When engaging online we have even more time. For instance, often we can wait 24 hours before sending a response or adding our thoughts. After that time has passed we may find we no longer need to add our input after all.