Touche, Stephen! I went through the Australian public school system in the 70s and 80s. I’m eternally grateful for the solid grounding it provided in the ‘Three R’s’.

However, I also spent an inordinate amount of time learning a raft of irrelevant facts – time that would have been better spent learning and practising critical thinking and mutual respect. (Luckily my parents taught me these things, but not all kids were/are that fortunate.)

If a child is taught these kinds of life skills from an early age, just imagine what the world might look like!
.-= Fiona M´s last blog ..35 million Aussies? But how? =-.

I’m on the same page as you about sound bites. I can send over a sound bite to someone, but they will get almost nothing out of it. I took a second to think about the items I remember from various reads, and very few of them are sound bites. Most of them are the main points summarized in my mind from a page-long story or multiple examples put together. Anything valuable from sound bites has already been absorbed by most of us, so we have to move up to a higher level.
.-= Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..Verbally Attacking Others Shows A Lack Of Intelligence =-.

So, what’s happening is that people look for subject matter EXPERTS instead of looking for information. Perceived experts are usually those who post higher quality information. Once people have found an expert that they TRUST, they’ll go to him/her as their primary source for information for that particular subject. This saves people time.

Stephen Covey wrote about TRUST in his book called “The Speed of Trust”. Although he talks about it in a different context, I’d say the same applies to the internet. But then again, like you said, we tend to trust “people whom we already agree and we are simply looking for confirmation and support”. The key is to take advantage of this by being more bold about your own views, because by doing that you attract like-minded people to you.
.-= Charles´s last blog ..Copy Your Way to Blogging Success =-.

So I guess i don’t fit the profile. I have my critical thinking already there and I do it all the time. There is only a very limited part of the Internet which I “believe” or “follow” (this blog being in the circle of trust, of course).

That being said, I do think this was a good article. And I mean it
.-= Dragos Roua´s last blog ..30 Days Exercising Challenge – Day 2 =-.

It is difficult to take the time to internalize what we’re bombarded with and come up with conclusions and thoughtful insights. I have found this even as I’ve discovered new blogs. Lately, I’ve been cutting back how many I view at one time, or even in a day, so that I can avoid information overload. It has been helpful.
.-= Jodi at Joy Discovered´s last blog ..A Builder, a Gardener, this Life =-.

I think truth is what we are all after. Truth can sometimes be communicated with amazing brevity. It is nice to be able to find small chunks of very targeted information without having to wade through umpteen chapters to get what you need at the moment.

An in-depth thesis has its place, but so does a get-to-the-point blog article in my opinion. If I want to go deeper, then I dig a little harder and I never put my critical thinking on hold.

I like articles that break the information into digestible chunks linking together several posts to create depth and completeness.

Oh and by the way, nice post!
.-= Jeff@MySuperChargedLife´s last blog ..6 Tips To Achieve Outstanding Results Every Time =-.

In the past, like my youth, you pretty much had to interact with a lot of people who disagreed with much of what you thought. Nowadays you can spend your whole life on the Internet finding confirmation. Intentionally exposing yourself to positions you disagree with is a very healthy approach.