Achieving individual thought and critical thinking: a student’s guide

The Information age is “the modern age regarded as a time in which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated and easily available especially through the use of computer technology”, disseminated meaning spread around.

Currently, we are in the Information age. Information is now literally at our fingertips. All that is required is a simple scroll or a press of a button. However, before this, information retrieval required effort. It required skill and time. A university student had to scour library shelves for a certain book, skim pages for useful information, ask experts and trusted advisors for information. Today, this absence of effort has had an unprecedented impact on human nature.

We are satisfied with the first result that comes up after we search something. We are willing to believe a random video from a person with no apparent credentials but lots of fame. We don’t investigate or question.

There are two key skills that have been heavily impacted by the information age: critical thinking and individual thought. So, what are they and why are they more important than ever?

What is critical thinking & individual thought?

Critical thinking, put simply, is the “the process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea, without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you”. Critical thinking requires us to pause and analyse the subject or idea objectively. It requires the disregard of personal biases and opinions. We find that we are easily swayed online by our biases and our feelings. For example, a pop artist’s fan might blindly believe information given by the artist because they perceive the artist as someone likeable or trustworthy. Here, the fan has not thought critically about the information.

Similarly, individual thought or independent thinking also requires you to master the art of thinking objectively. It refers to thoughts and ideas that an individual may have that are distinct and not reliant on other’s thoughts.

Why is there a need for these skills?

1. Technology & polarisation

Despite the obvious advantages of information access, such as increased education accessibility, there are also many disadvantages. The personalisation of social media pages and sites has led to people only being exposed to certain information and narratives. Quite ironic, right? Having so much access to information has ultimately led us to limit our exposure to it. Suddenly, our thoughts and opinions are not ours but a reflection of the information we are fed by our algorithms. As a result, we no longer carry an individual thought!

Despite this all happening through technology, the consequences are apparent in the real world. According to an article by The Pew Research Centre , the overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions (strong political opinions) has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. Simply put, people have become more divided in their opinions and ideas. People of both parties are consistently fed information that appeases and validates their group’s ideas. A more relatable example is the polarisation seen in many online platforms. There is a clear, growing division between two sides of any situation at this point! Liking celebrities or not, whether AI is good or bad…and the list goes on.

This divide is a threat to society.

People have become more divided and less harmonious. It is common sense that a society in conflict is not a successful one, and neither a productive one. The ability to think for yourself and be critical of things you are exposed and told is the best way to resist the narrow-mindedness born from the divide in the internet, social media, and society.

2. Groupthink

You might be familiar with the idea of groupthink. It is human nature for us to agree and follow a certain idea in favour of our own ideas, even when our own thoughts may be objectively better or more realistic. We seek to all agree on the same decision rather than proposing reliable solutions.

Individual thought breaks this tendency. This pattern. Instead of being satisfied with the thoughts of others, you think individually and objectively.

3. Career & education

Aside from the social benefits of these skills, critical thinking and individual thought are also necessary in the professional world. These skills are being sought out even more from employers, especially in such an unpredictable and ever-changing world. In his research paper, Rashmi Mehrotra mentions how:

“Following COVID-19, the new economy puts a high demand on a flexible workforce and employees’ capacity to analyze data from a variety of sources and come up with creative solutions. In a fast-changing company, a person with good critical thinking abilities will be appreciated.”

At School of Humanity, learners are encouraged to be ‘future-ready’ by diversifying in skills and planning their career journey to be future-focused. Critical thinking and individual thought are from the skills that are applicable in any industry and in any context. Whatever career or project you might want to pursue in the future will ultimately require these skills. For example, a lawyer must be able to critically and objectively think about evidence presented, just as an entrepreneur has to think independently in order to sell a unique product. These skills are universal and therefore, valuable.

Of course, these skills do extend farther than serving you in your career. We are always being exposed to new information and are engaging in life-long learning. Thinking objectively about the information we consume is important. Both critical thinking and individual thought are highly useful for us not only in the workplace, but also our ‘classrooms’.

How can you achieve individual thought & critical thinking?

1. Start with yourself

Oftentimes, the main obstacle to achieving a goal or skill is ourselves. Achieving individual thought and critical thinking is not a stranger to this obstacle. Preconceived ideas, biases, emotion and education are a few of the things that stop us from thinking objectively. Thinking for ourselves. Our ideas and values may unknowingly control and affect a large part of your daily decisions.

The classic example of this is school drama involving your friend. Picture this: your best friend has fought with someone else in your school. To everyone outside your friend group, all the evidence clearly points to the fact that your friend is the one that started it all. But, how could that be? Surely a friend that is always nice and sweet to you could do no wrong? Here, it is clear that a bias towards your friend has affected your judgment. You have not thought critically nor objectively.

So, how can we recognise these personal biases and values and eliminate them from our thinking and decision-making process?

1. Write it down. When presented with any problem or decision, write it down on paper. Split a page in half and list the arguments for or against a solution, or write down what you know about a problem and what you don’t.
2. Identify your reasons and evidence. Now, go through each point and label the evidence or reason for each statement. In the previous scenario that I described, had you written down the reasons for supporting your friend and reasons not to, you would have easily realised that the reason ’because they are my friend’ is entirely baseless and unreasonable. What evidence do you have that they treat everyone the same way as you? Here, you have identified a bias.
3. Ask yourself the right questions. It is helpful to write down some questions to help you confront your bias next time you encounter a problem or when you have to make a decision. Some questions you may ask yourself are:What are the reasons behind my opinions/judgments?Was there a person, object, or personal value that I immediately thought of?Do the personal biases I know of have anything to do with my decision?Your awareness of the role of your biases and ideas will definitely improve with practice, and regular reflections on your reactions and thoughts.

Now, let’s apply these steps to our previous scenario. You’re back to weighing your relationship with your friend against the judgment of many uninvolved witnesses. You might find it hard to overcome this sense of guilt when doubting your friend. It is here that our steps come in:

1. You write down all the judgments or points for or against your friend e.g. “I know my friend to be very nice” vs. “My classmates have said that she tends to insult others”.
2. Next, you try to give reasons for these arguments: what evidence is there for each claim, or is there any at all. This will differentiate whether the argument is a personal belief or an objective truth.
3. You write down some questions that you might ask yourself next time you confront a similar situation to do with your friend. These will serve as a reminder to keep thinking critically and objectively, even when your biases are involved.

2. Check your sources

Part of thinking critically is being able to identify valid and reliable resources. Critical thinking requires you to analyse unbiased evidence and a variety of sources. Being able to check the validity of your sources is an essential step to achieving individual thought and critical thinking. Following the following success criteria will guide you and ensure you are using the right sources.

1. Is the evidence or information from a reliable, known source? Your information should be coming from a source that is trusted and known. Some examples are articles of ivy league universities as sources for academic research, or a trusted adult as a source of advice for any social problems you may have. Both of these sources come from people with experience and knowledge in the specific field.
2. Is the source biased? A source may strive to manipulate evidence and language to favour one side of an argument or an idea. This is where your skills come in. You need to be able to view the information objectively without being swayed by any biases. Unfortunately, a lot of the information today is heavily biased, especially when it comes to news. A way to mitigate these biases, it is a good idea to get your information from a wide variety of sources i.e. different websites, people , blogs, videos and more.

3. Vary your sources

As mentioned in the previous point, varying your sources can help overcome many obstacles to achieving critical and individual thought. Here are some ways in which variety can help!

1. No more groupthink! Being exposed to the same type of people, online information sources, or environment can lead to you conforming to a single view or idea. Varying your information sources or the people you talk to ensures you are exposed to all the possible ideas and takes on different topics.
2. Stepping out of your comfort zone. Like many others, you might have a set of websites or specific people that you regularly rely on for information. After all, it is much easier to click once on a bookmarked tab than to conduct extensive research. Striving to vary your sources encourages you to emerge from your ‘research comfort zone’.

4. Be proactive

When reading information or listening to someone talk, most people are quite passive. They nod along to what a person might say without asking for reasons or context. Being passive is the opposite of what you want to do. Asking meaningful questions is a great way to delve deeper and analyse information. To further understand this, let’s look at an example!

Imagine if a friend tells you that ‘chemistry is a horrible subject!’, knowing that you have never done it. Now, there are two people you can choose to be in response to this statement; the passive person or the critical, individual thinker. The passive person would accept their friend’s statement. No questions, no objections. But, this is not who you want to be. You want to be proactive. You want to be critical. The critical thinker would pause and ask, ‘Why?’, and you should too. Delve into the reasons behind the statement. Go on to do your own research. Ask other people about their experience with the subject. You can now see that there is so much action involved in critical and individual thought. So, take that action and don’t be the passive person.

 

Ultimately, the information you have access to is never going to be a 100% correct or completely unbiased. Naturally, as humans we make mistakes when recounting events and information. We also have biases and beliefs that affect our judgment. Even the institutes and companies that provide us with information have agendas e.g. selling their product. These things may be out of your control, but your approach to them is not.

From now on, approach everything you encounter critically and objectively. Practice individual thought and be the critical thinker.