I am not an Infovegan. Not because I have anything against veganism per se, I just don’t have that kind of willpower. InfoPaleo is probably a better way to describe my information consumption. I follow a Paleo diet in my eating life, and while the focus is similarly on eating whole foods (mostly fruit and veggies) and avoiding factory-farmed meats and processed junk, there still room for indulgences like bacon and butter.
This diet is analogous to how I approach my information consumption. I still get the Washington Post delivered to my door. I listen to NPR on the radio every morning on my drive into work. And while these news sources are documented to lean left-of-center, they are still considerably more reliable than the sensationalized entertainment “news” on cable nowadays. As Joan Cusack so wisely argues in one of my favorite movies (Say Anything), "There's no food in your food!"
On the other hand, I do love a good Daily Show snark fest every now and again (FYI they just did a great segment called “Polarized Media: Consuming News from Inside Your Bubble”).
So how does all of this effect my students? Well, we model the behavior we want to see in our classrooms. It would be a hard sell trying to convince my students to eat carrots while I stuff my face with Cheez-Its.
We need to make sure our students have the skills and strategies necessary to navigate a world of misinformation, not just so they become better researchers, but so they can also become informed citizens. And the best place to start is with ourselves.
Hi Laura! I like the way you stated that you indulge in your food diet. You understand that there are still delicious items (bacon and butter) that may not fit into your Paleo way of eating, but you don't just cut them out for that sake. With the information you consume, you still indulge a little, but not enough for it to make a huge impact on your information diet. You strike a nice balance with both diets!
ReplyDeleteI agree, you can't limit yourself completely and sometimes you have to indulge. I think if you have an understanding of the information you are consuming and where it came from you can be a better informed citizen.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that in order for us to teach the kids how to be good users of information, we have to make sure that we're good users of information first.
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