OKay… fine. I admit it. When a dear friend sent me a copy of the videos of the cell phones cooking the popcorn, the first thought I had was,,,wow!! I want to do that. My second thought was… whoa… what is that doing to my brain? My third thought was… maybe I should investigate this. Is this true? A few minutes of searching resulted in the following video
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/09/carroll.cellphone.popcorn.cnn
So to recap. Thought sequence..
- Wow! I want to do that!
- Whoa! What is that doing to my brain?
- Hmmm, is this true?
Allow me to draw your attention to my third thought, i.e. is this true? Do I need to act on my first impulse to buy some headset so I don’t fry my brain? If I do, what do headsets do to my brain? Do you see a pattern here? Run away panic? Unnecessary worry?
While these questions are important, a more important question that might shave off some time off my personal drama-fest is to determine if the videos that I’m basing my opinions on are true. Are my assumptions correct? One of the first steps in thinking critically is determining if the “facts” you think you have are indeed facts. If they are not, don’t waste your time.
In this instance, they were not. The videos were a hoax, a marketing stunt. It took about 10 minutes to determine that with a little help from Google and CNN. Thanks folks.
My invitation to you, my dear reader, and myself (note to self) is to think before jumping to conclusions. As an educator, I know there is a push for bringing more critical thinking into the classroom. The assessment device used at our institution is the California Critical Thinking Test. It has its uses and place in the process. However, I propose that critical thinking is a skill that has more practical applications – like not running out to buy the latest gizmo. This benefit, my friends, goes far beyond the score on a California Critical Thinking Test. 😉
Do you agree? Tell me.