Weaponized Critical Thinking

An article about Danah Boyd's SXSW EDU keynote, "What Hath We Wrought?," caught my eye for the use of the phrase "weaponized critical thinking." As someone who has taught critical thinking in many classes and as a course in itself, the idea of "weaponizing" the subject was frightening.

That fear is what Boyd talks about. It comes from a lack of media literacy, fake news, media manipulation and, unfortunately, the democratization of access to media. That access was thought to be a key benefit of "Web 2.0" when we would becomes producers rather than just consumers of web and media content.

I do believe that this led to some rational discourse and more viewpoints getting exposure, but Boyd and others would argue that there was too much democratization. The founding fathers warned of a democracy where mobs could rule. With all the options and possible sources of information, most people gravitate (a word that I think implies this invisible force) to things that align with our own existing positions.

In her talk, Boyd summarized her research into the ways in which social media can often turn the habits of critical thinking against itself. Frightening.