Fostering Metacognition in the Wild

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Kate

In a classroom setting, educators teach and support critical thinking and metacognition to a stable audience. Assignments can be structured to require or at least encourage analysis and awareness of bias or intent by creators of the works being studied. It’s a safe bet that most teachers hope their students will develop those skills as habits and carry them into the rest of their lives. Whether students carry those skills forward or not, most people living outside the academic sphere have not had significant training or incentive to examine their media exposure or its effects.

In the larger world, much is made of the importance of people having digital literacy and thinking critically, but a bigger question remains: how can we influence people to learn and apply these skills in a meaningful way rather than just to support their current beliefs? When danah boyd asks “Did Media Literacy Backfire?,” she writes about the dangers inherent in readers drawing conclusions about the trustworthiness of their sources based on intuition and their own experience rather than deeper analysis. She recognizes the tendency of people encouraged to be critical of their information sources to trust or doubt based in large part on how closely media aligns with the readers’ worldview. Are there practices or structures that can be deployed to divert people towards thinking outside their usual filter bubbles? And will media consumers be open to them?

Wendy Rose Gould invites readers to analyze their social media bubble and gives practical, concrete ideas to break out of them. She acknowledges that people continue to live in and reinforce their bubbles because it is uncomfortable to experience cognitive dissonance, and easy to avoid it, especially in an era of algorithm-curated news feeds. The question that arises then, is how can we encourage society around us to do the work to expand their bubbles and be interested in other points of view? As educators, do we have a responsibility outside the classroom to foster growth? Trevor Hoag’s article “The Pretense of Neutrality” resonates as applicable within the higher education system, but even more for those that feel called to advance the aims of critical pedagogy outside a traditional pedagogical structure. In an era of prominent mis- and disinformation, it feels almost negligent to refrain from the attempt to nudge the conversation towards deeper thinking about media, its creators, and its aims.

I work in libraries rather than schools. Libraries are educational institutions, far more self-directed than the average classroom. Constituents directly control their learning by choosing their own materials and programs, and may decide either not to use our services at all, or to work for change in our policies and holdings through elections or appointments to governing boards if we seem to privilege a philosophy contrary to their worldview. We support life-long learning and work towards social justice, while navigating the constraints of each community’s dominant culture. A similar tension exists on social media. I cultivate a variety of viewpoints on my feed to expand my own bubble, and hopefully that of my contacts through my own contributions. The question that unifies all of these interactions is how can I/we combat misinformation and present counternarratives in a way that may have constructive effects on our network? As described by Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker (print version 2/27/2017,) confirmation bias is a well-known hazard to simply sharing facts that contradict a person’s deeply held belief, so better methods need to be employed for goals beyond starting a disagreement or inspiring a cull of contacts lists. The underlying mission may be to hold attention long enough for an audience to take an extra moment to interact with new information, or to consider a new angle to a subject about which they already have firm opinions. As I look forward to future library programs and publicity, and as I consider my footprint on social media, I intend to incorporate some of the following concepts.

Empathy

In sources as disparate as Forbes magazine and a Community Toolkit for Addressing Health Misinformation from the Office of the US Surgeon General, authors emphasize the need for empathy and understanding other viewpoints. Neither makes the case that we need to embrace alternative interpretations or knowledge we understand to be demonstrably false, merely that it is essential to approach from a position of humility and seeking to know how someone has arrived at their conclusions. In many cases, it depends on group identities and status. Relationships and identity are integral to a person’s trust in information sources and willingness to process new information. In order to better understand a person’s worldview and areas of contention, it can be helpful to consider their day-to-day concerns and how those affect their experience with contentious issues. It is important to address misinformation or perceived wrongs privately, rather than in a public forum like a comments section. Nobody responds well to public shaming, and defensiveness will prevent someone from considering your input, much less adjusting their views.

One strategy to increase empathy in our lives includes consciously curating our own varied social media and news feed. This may look like maintaining contacts or following newsfeeds that disagree with us on important issues. We can observe the sources they cite to see which media channels are shaping their views and providing them with the information they trust. If we find the validity of these sources suspect, we should be able to identify why we doubt their credibility and seek other sources with similar bias and better fact-finding.

In the library world, empathy-building might look like some of the “Human Library” or facilitated conversation programs like the “Community Conversations” program in Estes Park, CO. These programs create an intentional environment for people to engage with each other and better recognize their shared humanity while recognizing that mutual respect does not require agreement on every topic.

When we investigate our own beliefs and find we have made mistakes or misunderstandings, it is vital for us to accept responsibility and be open about our own fallibility. We should be willing to share our thought process or discoveries and how our views have matured. It is easier to connect with others when we acknowledge our own failings and can share that vulnerability. Being supportive and respectful when others change their minds or behavior due to increased knowledge or understanding is another essential aspect of fostering empathy in the world around us.

Not Perpetuating the Problem

Kris Shaffer writes about “truthy lies and surreal truths” and how to recognize deceptive practices and prevent oneself from inadvertently propagating misinformation. He describes common methods used by malicious actors to link blatant untruths to factual information or to present falsehoods in a manner that looks more credible. He also discusses some ways in which truthful information can be presented to seem clearly inaccurate. A driving force throughout his article is doing the research to be certain of what and how much we know before creating or spreading information. It is vital to check varied sources for confirmation before sharing news stories, memes, videos, or pictures. Later findings of inaccuracies or embellishment lessens our credibility moving forward. He also stresses the importance of gathering and sharing reliable resources for finding and fact-checking news items. By creating a list of trustworthy sources, we promote our own accuracy and better understanding of contentious topics. If we share those sources and information about why we find them to be useful, our relationships within a network may offer a boost to those sources and their broader acceptance. Consistent repetition and sharing of both informational resources and true versions of misinformation is also important, as one of the ways conspiracy theories and other disinformation spreads is through frequent sharing. Even when people are arguing against it, merely sharing the phrases, even in a denial, helps embed it more firmly in readers’ minds. Sharing the counterinformation without reference to the initial statement helps create another narrative for receptive and undecided consumers. Shaffer’s suggestions require effort and dedication, but he makes an excellent point that we have to be willing to put in the work to help counteract the far easier, algorithm-guided, social media feed methods that so many people around us rely on for their news and to guide their decisions.

Within a library setting, it is important to recognize our role as a community-supported information source. It is particularly vital to maintain a neutral tone and provide information the citizenry recognizes as valid. Libraries have been traditionally seen as trustworthy and valuable sources of information and services. We must maintain and grow that trust as various groups and individuals look to shift libraries’ priorities, programming, services and collections through the makeup of their governing boards. It is essential to continue our commitment to social justice and accurate information while protecting our ability to express those professional values in a manner that encourages mutual respect. When we maintain our reputation for trustworthiness, materials we share can benefit from our own credibility. Cultural shifts will be slow in some communities, and we have to be willing to commit to a long trajectory rather than looking for instant and wholesale shifts in worldview.

Levity

Laughter builds trust, lowers stress, and increases memory retention. These are just a few of the tidbits that Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas include in their book, Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life. The rest of the book is an enjoyable exploration of how to find levity in even the serious subjects as we navigate life. Humor is not appropriate in all discussions, but when there is room to lighten the mood or set the tone with a touch of the unexpected, a shared wry observation, or a self-deprecating statement, it creates a more fertile environment for increased flexibility, receptiveness and engagement. Even serious topics like seat belt use have benefited from a lighthearted approach in advertising and public awareness. According to Aaker and Bagdonas, important considerations in the use of humor to support behavioral change include not picking topics too emotionally close to the other party and keeping the humor inclusive rather than an attack. Jokes should never be about another person’s identity or situation, and should not disparage a group or individual. Recognizing irony in a situation or a shared annoyance can be funny, but only when it is not at the expense of or pertinent only to people in a specific situation. These factors frequently make memes or other online attempts at humor distasteful. We have all seen the memes that capitalize on the “otherness” of a group. Sometimes we are in that group, and we feel excluded. Other times we are not in the targeted group, which makes us complicit in the disrespect. It is difficult but valuable to search for and capitalize on opportunities to share humor that enhances relationships and our interconnectedness by focusing on shared concerns or the universality of the human condition.

On a personal level, I rarely share memes or other humor, but I will be more attentive than ever to the tone and object of ones that I choose to share. Being conscious of potential unintended meanings and ready to apologize and make amends for accidental missteps are also important considerations. Thinking twice before clicking on “share” is a good way to give oneself an extra moment to notice characteristics that might have unexpected meanings.

Libraries and their staff demonstrate humor in display themes, signs, and funny fake statistics, many of which are noncontroversial and sometimes make fun of the industry itself. In addition to slowing people down to appreciate the joke, it humanizes the institution and hopefully makes the library a more welcoming environment and its information more credible as users develop a sense of connection through shared humor.

Games/Gamification

Video games, role-playing games, and books are all good ways to experience life from another perspective. Making learning fun increases engagement in a learning experience and can take many forms. As noted in this 2015 article, libraries have been using game mechanics in real world activities to engage visitors, increase awareness of services, and enhance marketing. Most U.S. public libraries run some form of a summer reading or summer learning program, and libraries where I have worked are using systems like digital badging, cooperative achievements, and virtual leaderboards to enhance participation. Virtual reality is frequently seen as a gaming medium, but it can also be used to help people explore the world through the eyes of refugees or medical patients, helping students and potential caregivers to better understand future interactions. On a museum exhibit about the Titanic disaster, each visitor received a ticket for one of the passengers on the voyage. As they explored the exhibit, they could imagine the experience through the eyes of their assigned passenger, and find out at the end if that person survived the trip. This can better hold attention and increase engagement in the experiences of people living in a different world.

While much of the gaming industry is dominated by marketing towards white, cis-gendered, heterosexual males, some gaming industry members are starting to see some isolated signs of progress towards better representation in the industry. Hopefully these games will serve as mirrors for players that share characteristics with the game figures, and as windows for other players to observe the game from a different perspective. As the industry expands in these directions, further investment and a broader audience can continue these transitions, leading to a more welcoming environment for all.

Libraries can support these initiatives by curating their collections with special attention towards creators and intended audiences, much as they do for books, movies, and other collection materials. Libraries with a video game collection can intentionally include games such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales in their purchases, including replacing it when damaged or lost. When collections hold role-playing systems like Dungeons and Dragons, they can also seek systems by BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ creators. A couple recent Kickstarter examples are Coyote and Crow and Into the Mother Lands. Library holdings do not typically include Kickstarter support, but if games become available for retail, they may be a niche market worth exploring, showing cultures and experiences reimagined through the eyes of creators frequently excluded from game writing.

Conclusion

In a world of deep division and polarization, finding ways to connect people that hold very different views is vital to the pursuit of increased understanding. Only when people of differing perspectives can communicate constructively with each other is there room for progress. Much of our society is retreating into ever more isolated camps, and we have to work together to overcome these temptations and offer another way forward. Some of these tactics may benefit participants trying to find solutions and create alliances. Working towards civility is not a positive goal when it means trying to support current systems with their inherent inequities. However, starting with strategies to catch the attention of the otherwise uninterested and possibly even inspire them to consider other points of view may be a way to open doors otherwise ignored by people not seeking to find them. How can we move through the world facilitating some of these discoveries and explorations? It seems essential to make the attempt.

Social Media as Community Organizing

Posted on October 13, 2019 by Kate

I work in a small city of just under 30,000 people. In a lot of senses, it’s a bedroom community, as most people that live there commute to work in one of the much larger cities nearby. The city and residents pride themselves on a very strong sense of community, a vibrant downtown and excellent engagement in causes both local and global. As an example, within my workplace, we have nearly 300 active volunteers per year, which calculates out to an equivalent of approximately 1% of the city’s residents being active in the library, a rather impressive quantity, given that many other causes in town are also well-supported.

I have frequently observed the impact of social media on various causes and information-sharing in the city. I am aware of a minimum of three Facebook groups moderated by local citizens used to disseminate information, share opinions, publicize events, and elicit support for various causes. Various colleagues have joined them as an additional avenue to spread information about library offerings and have an eye on topics of local interest. I subscribe to one of the groups and can think of many times that I have seen its role in shaping public sentiment or garnering attendance for rallies, vigils, or City Council meetings. It can be a dumping ground for people’s negative attitudes, complaints about traffic, bad manners, or local policies. However, it has also been used to get word out about local candidates and why they’re running, as well as campaign events for folks to learn more about them. I’ve seen organizers use it to get carpool arrangements started for more distant marches and rallies, and to share suggestions on how people can comment on upcoming legislation or potential City policies before they are voted on or enacted. Local hot topics include fracking, intergovernmental relations, and some of the local festivals. All of these have plenty of posts by people sharing their opinions with various levels of civility, and also give like-minded folks a place to hear about meetings or other gatherings where they can learn more about or further advance their causes.

We frequently think of social media being used to organize people that are geographically spread, and that is clearly a major impact it can have to unite people that may never meet. It’s interesting to see it also used to streamline communication for people that live in the same place and want to connect in person but may not know about their joint interests or local manifestations of those causes without the medium of these community stream-of-consciousness style conversations.

Who’s Pulling Your Strings?

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Kate

My fourth grade teacher was a novel experience for me in a lot of ways. He was my first male teacher and my first teacher to assign long-term projects. He taught a group of us to play guitar after school. As a first-year teacher assembling a classroom library from whatever he had at home that was remotely suitable for elementary students, he introduced me to several series and characters that I would otherwise not have met that early. (Thank you, Mr. Haas, for my enduring love of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Get Smart!) He helped our class write and compose two songs, and then record them in an actual studio. I presume that somewhere during that year, we covered the expected academic topics, as well, as we all seemed to be ready for fifth grade the following year.

"Are You Being Watched?" Sign — Sign at tiger exhibit, Denver Zoo

One of his most lasting impacts on my thought patterns was the unit we did on advertising. We looked at various strategies used for selling, including both what they looked like and why they worked. We were sent home to find examples of each and describe the components of the ads. I can’t say advertising doesn’t work on me, but I can say that I tend to notice and attempt to deconstruct its methods and goals more often than some folks I observe. That unit was what caused a flash of recognition in me for Tristan Harris’ line, “what we don’t talk about is how the handful of people working at a handful of technology companies through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today.” (Harris, 2017) There are plenty of methods of advertising, and the internet is not the only outlet. It’s just one of the most potent and omnipresent. With a relatively small number of individuals at the helm and making many of the decisions about what we see, how we see it, and whose viewpoints get heard, it’s still a good idea to have some idea about how our experience on the internet is curated and shaped before we even encounter it. As I investigated the question, I encountered a 2015 multi-part report from MIT Technology Review, entitled “Persuasive Technology.” It was their May/June 2015 Business Report section. In an article entitled “Technology and Persuasion,” (Byrnes, 2015,) the researcher describes methods to keep people hooked on a particular game by recognizing behaviors that might mean they are getting bored and responding to those, or how a corporate wellness provider group uses data and game designers to maintain engagement from the workforce at a higher level than previously achieved. The researcher also cited an ad firm’s use of tracking data to better choose more effective advertising for individual users. Another article entitled, “New Technologies Persuade in Old Ways,” (Anders, 2015) specifically called out some of the strategies that have been used in some form to guide people’s behavior since times long before the internet was a consideration. Anders described these strategies as: “reciprocity, likeability, authority, scarcity, consistency, and social proof.”(Anders, 2015) If you think about those for a few minutes, you will readily see them at work all around you. Most of us would rather buy from or participate with a company that we see as friendly to us and/or our causes. We like to follow people’s feeds that may respond to us and boost our profile. We readily follow other users’ or experts’ advice and reviews on products and services, and items that sell out or advertise a limited number of opportunities are catering to our need for things that we see as limited.

If you’re interested in how companies may be programming you, take a look at one of these articles, or some of the others in the edition. They all seem to be short and easily digested. What did you learn, and how will it affect your outlook or behavior moving forward?

Anders, G. (2015, March 23). New technologies persuade in old ways. MIT Technology Review, Volume 110, No. 3. Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/535831/new-technologies-persuade-in-old-ways/?set=535816.

Byrnes, N. (2015, March 23). Technology and persuasion. MIT Technology Review, Volume 110, No. 3. Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/535826/technology-and-persuasion/?set=535816.

TED. (2017, July 28). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day | Tristan Harris. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C74amJRp730.

Some upsides of connection

Posted on October 3, 2019 by Kate

An interesting juxtaposition recently happened for me between class work and my outside reading. I have been working my way through a pair of books that both explore human capabilities and roles in the current era as they relate to each other, machines, society, and the world. The books are Range: Why generalists triumph in a specialized world, by David Epstein and Thank you for being late: An optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of acceleration, by Thomas Friedman. Both are written from a more optimistic point of view than many other current releases, and both offered some different approaches to thinking about social media and its impact, among many other topics. Plenty has been written about the negative aspects of connectivity and social media, and many good points have been made regarding addictiveness and resource waste, destruction of focus, anxiety caused by comparison with others’ curated lives, and lack of real connection between people. These books highlighted some of the more positive effects that can also come about in the current world of connection. In Chapter 5 of his book, Friedman talks about some of the ways in which easy and fast communication is changing the world. His examples include the fact that when he wrote the book, 914 million people had at least one international connection on social media and at least 50 percent of Facebook users had at least one international friend. (Friedman, 2016) I will readily agree that many of these “friends” may not be close, but they do at least give us some more access to outside viewpoints. Through Facebook, I get to maintain some level of contact with cousins in Norway, in addition to friends in England and Peru. There is almost no chance I would stay in any form of contact with these people without social media, but with the connections, when they come to town (or the country) for a visit, we may choose to meet up and continue our social ties in person. Friedman also devotes a fair bit of space to a discussion on ways that internet and social media offer people in developing countries better access to education, new philosophies, and a new audience for their thoughts and problem-solving ideas. David Epstein’s book is largely about the benefits inherent in approaching learning and problem-solving from disparate angles and disciplines in order to arrive at novel solutions. In chapter 8, he highlights some crowdsourcing programs including Innocentive and Kaggle that pose questions on the internet, and ask for solutions. These solutions usually come from a wide range of areas of expertise, and typically arise from well outside the expected backgrounds. These programs work by giving a large number of people access and a sense of community to work on problems together, learning from each other, and making contributions within a specific context. These are a little beyond the typical realm of the social media landscape that most of us inhabit, but they are another form of personal learning network and social interaction across large gaps in distance and time. As Paul Miller pointed out in the video and article, while these tools can easily drive wedges between people and interfere with in-person contact, they can also be invaluable for organizing more contact between people and better communication, if we choose to use them in that way.

Epstein, D. (2019) Range: Why generalists triumph in a specialized world. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.

Friedman, T. L. (2016) Thank you for being late: An optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Miller, P. (2013, May) I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet. The Verge. Retrieved from: https://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet.

Miller, P. (2013, September 13)A year offline, what I have learned. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=trVzyG4zFMU.

Spiders, the web, and me

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Kate

I am pretty phobic about spiders, so when I saw one hanging out (literally) in the shower as I started to step in, it occurred to me that my uphill battle against spiders in the house has some parallels to my efforts to maintain decent barriers within my internet and social media usage. (I would say I’m slightly less paranoid about the internet tracking.) First, autumn seems to be on its way, and the spiders are either moving in to the house, or just being more visible. We’ve dealt with a minimum of a dozen spiders in the last week. I think spiders are marvelous outside the house, which I consider to be their proper setting. I enjoy watching them scramble around in our garden space, eating pests and keeping their numbers in check. They have amazing physical characteristics and an ability to go almost anywhere. Various internet providers, online services, and social networks can also be extremely useful and have a similar, more metaphorical ability to be everywhere. I recognize that my house will never be spider-free, and my network interactions will never be surveillance-free. On the other hand, I’m willing to go to some effort to minimize both spiders and data surrender. We try to minimize obvious cracks and food sources for arachnids in the house, and online, I pay attention to what information I’m willing to share and how I access various sites.

As I’ve read through various resources about what gets shared, stored, and tracked, I was edified to see that there wasn’t a ton of information that was entirely new to me. I use minimal profiles and background on my social media that I use for truly social purposes, like Facebook. For my more professional usage, I focus on more narrow, work-oriented background and contacts. I use multiple email addresses, including an essentially throw-away option for signing up for online services and the occasional online purchase, which I also try to minimize. I started using DuckDuckGo as my search engine a few years ago, and prefer the interface and results lists to Google. I clear history and cookies with some regularity, and the fact that my job as a librarian has me using multiple different computers in the course of a day or week, and searching for a wide variety of topics and products well outside my actual interests feels like a bit of extra camouflage as well.

There are certainly levels of privacy protection that I’m not ready to tackle yet and don’t really feel a need to utilize. I’ve been tempted to play with Tor browsing on occasion, but I am not really interested in the attention that can also arise from that usage or that of some of the more anonymous email providers. I’m also not ready to go to a progression of burner phones or drop boxes that start to feel more like I’m playing a role in a spy thriller than managing communication. Since so many industries and jobs expect some form of an internet presence, I’d rather manage and curate one that sends a message I want rather than be completely invisible to potential colleagues and employers.