Episode #19 - Memes, Confirmation Bias, and Discernment

Our newsfeeds are inundated with memes and videos promoting all sorts of ideological perspectives, and much of that is curated by the networks that we choose to incorporate into the spheres of our respective social media accounts. As a result, it's easy to create insular and isolated social bubbles that keep us from understanding where others outside those bubbles are coming from, or from knowing what's truly going on in the world. In this episode, Amber Bowen, John Anthony Dunne, and Rev. Daniel Parham discuss some of these  dynamics, such as the use of memes by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to critique present-day protests, and the arguments against kneeling as a form of protest by contending that kneeling should only be reserved for God. For many of us, these memes are helpful because they are short and easy-to-understand, but given the echo chamber of social media, these memes often serve to reinforce a confirmation bias where we're likely to passively consume rather than critically engage what passes through our newsfeeds because the memes cohere with what we already think or because they align with what we would like to think about the world. Given our general human inclination to approve of what we prefer to be true rather than what's actually true, we turn our discussion in this episode to address the importance of cultivating a habit of discernment. As our discussion unfolds, we articulate that being a discerning person looks like: (A) being suspicious and skeptical, and allowing our curiosity to drive us to dig deeper, (B) utilizing and engaging a variety of sources, (C) seeking wise counsel from others, (D) checking our heart attitudes, and (E) prayerfully committing ourselves to the heart of God in service of others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.