advice Archives - Common-Sense Interaction

Unmasking the Illusion: The Perils of Misinformation and How to Navigate the Sea of Fake News

This post may seem ridiculous to some. However, I assure you that if you bear with me, you will understand why I am writing this. Furthermore, you may look at the information found on the internet in a whole new light.

To start with, I would like to say there is information for anything you wish to find out online. There is very good, somewhat reasonable, terrible, and downright horribly made-up information out there. All of this information comes to us on our devices, like the phones we carry around all day. The problem is that some of the younger generations take the information they find on the internet as absolute truth. All the information is there for the taking. All we have to do is look for it. But wait, didn’t someone have to put this information on a website in the first place? Have you ever asked yourself, “Maybe the person who wrote this is wrong,” or “Maybe they left some of the important information out of the text that you are reading?”

Let me put this as simply as I can. Not all the information online is true. In all actuality, if you pay attention, you will find that a great percentage of what you are reading is false! This is also the case in videos. Videos can be changed to show a certain outcome that is different from what actually happened. I’m not saying that all the information out there is false. As I stated before, there is a percentage of falsehood placed for you to read and watch.

Man looks at skeleton on a computer tablet — Don’t trust everything you see online

Information out there can be used to help us in many ways. On the same note, information out there can also cause us and others harm. We have to be careful when believing what we are reading and watching online, just as we do with television. In most cases, the ability to pull up information online is far worse than what we see on television. This is mainly because television is monitored closely, whereas the internet is not.

Here is an example of something that I know a lot about, and I could write it down for you and post it for you to read. I have done a fair amount of welding in the past, and now that I have spent quite a bit of time writing, telling you how to weld two pieces of metal together would be easy for me. However, if I were to leave out what tint of glass to use in your welding helmet, you could seriously hurt your eyes. Furthermore, if there was a typo in what tint to use, you could also hurt your eyes by following my directions. Would I do this on purpose? Of course not, but it could happen. This silly situation happens more often than you think. Typos happen. People leave out information to make their posts or videos fit into a certain time frame. Or the person writing a post or presenting a video may not find certain information necessary. It is possible they feel it is not worth mentioning certain things because, to them, it is common sense. However, to someone who has never tried what you are teaching, it may not be common sense at all. So, if you want to learn how to weld, you would be safer going to school for it or at least having a person who knows how to teach you in person, not on video. Is any of this sinking in yet?

Here is an example that we see every day: Two newscasters tell you what a politician is saying about what they stand for. One newscaster is liberal, and the other is conservative. The first question that you need to ask yourself is which side the politician is on. Is he or she a liberal or a conservative? This will make a huge difference in how the reporters tell you what is going on. If he or she is a conservative and you are listening to a liberal reporter, then you will get a variable difference than if you listen to the conservative reporter. And this works on both sides. Are the reporters changing the story? Probably not, but there will be a bias from one side to the other. When reporting, using certain words or stressing certain words can manipulate the audience of the newscast. This paragraph got your attention, didn’t it?

So what do we do with the information we are receiving from the internet to fix this issue? The best you can do is look up multiple sites on the subject you want to know about and find the variations. From there, we must use our own intelligence and some common sense to decide which we want to believe. This, of course, takes more time than just believing the first thing you read or hear. However, you will find that you will become educated and successful if you take this extra time.

Here is a small test that you can use to see if my argument holds water or not. Look up which breed of dog is best to own as a family dog. I have my favorites, and you have yours, but which breed is best? When you look it up, you will find my favorites, your favorites, and many others. Why is this? The answer is simple. Everyone has their own opinion on the subject, so you will find article after article about different breeds. This will hold true on any subject that you look up online, all because everyone wants their opinions heard and believes their opinions are the right ones. Are you going to run with the first article you read or do a little searching before you bring that dog into your home to live with your family? I hope you do some research first.

Lady (Ai) shown in computer screen — Artificial intelligence pulls information from the internet that was first put there by humans.

One last thought for you about the internet AI (artificial intelligence) is being used more and more to write information. These posts written by AI can be helpful, but they can also be misleading. Be very careful when reading AI scripts.

On that note, I will leave you to ponder what I have said. Please don’t take my word for it. Look up other opinions on the internet, and I hope you come back to my post on this subject as the one to believe. Well, I have to go now. I am working on my fiction writing on my other website (csi-extras.com). If you wish to read some of my fiction stories, I suggest you go take a look. This website (readcsi.com) is strictly for my and my guests opinions to help you in society. Take care, and remember, we are all in this together.

The Challenge of Raising Children

Brothers and Sisters, Brothers and Brothers, or Sisters and Sisters, close enough in teenage years, and let the wars begin. Who is right or who is wrong does not matter. The casualties of these wars are parents. Early gray hair and shaking hands are what parents have to look forward to. Oh, the joys of having children! And, Lord help me; I would not give my children up for the world.

Three young brothers, all about the same age, play together

It always looks like a good idea, at the time, to have our children close in age. This way, your child will have a playmate to grow up with. Right? We also see it as a good idea to have our children at an earlier age, so we will not be quite as up in age when they are out of the house on their own. We realize that our parents give us advice, but they are old and probably do not know anything about how things are done in this day and age. (I see a lot of head nodding and hear a lot of laughter from the older folks out there, right now).

Let us say you have two children in your early twenties that are eighteen months apart. You have set yourself up to have them raised and on their own by the time you hit your mid-forties. You and your spouse can enjoy your later years before entering the retirement age. Well, it may seem to be a smart plan, but it is not necessarily a good idea at all. You and your spouse have not had the time yet to mature as much as you need to be parents. This is not meant to be a slam on you, but there is a lot of truth to it. If you wait until you both are in your thirties to have children, there is a better chance that you will be better prepared for what is about to happen in your lives.

Children turn your lives upside down in ways that are never expected, and are different with every set of parents. The unexpected becomes your norm! If you believe that you know what it is like to have kids, and you do not have any yet, lord help you. You are about to be educated in ways you could never dream of. You think school was hard to get through; welcome to true schooling! The adventures you will go through with these brighteyed little ones are a joy, but also a wake-up call to even the strongest, most levelheaded parents alive.

Reading parent guide books can give you simple solutions to try with your children. You will not find solutions to all the problems you will face as a parent in these books. There will be times when you will have to come up with solutions for your child’s life on your own. You will face problems that have never been written by any author of any book. At times children will send you into the Twilight Zone, pushing every one of your buttons. You are being tested by the best! These angels will at some point become the little monsters you have seen in other children. How about that child yelling at the top of his lungs in the store because he did not get a toy? You will at times, hear people murmur, “They need to teach their children better”. Could you be this parent talked about one day? If you are mentally able enough to handle this once in a while, you are well on your way to having well-behaved children. If you let your little darlings run over you one time, you are in for a long road. This road will lead you into a disaster zone called “The Ultimate Teenager“!

All teenagers are, to put it nicely, a nightmare! If you think your children will be the same lovable creatures when they hit the “Teenage Zone” as they are; now, you are in for the ride of a lifetime! You will swear this cannot be your child. Parents that believe it is easier to raise children close in age will be hit with the double feature of nightmares.

As a parent, you will learn how mentally stable you are. Children will take you to the edge of your sanity and then push harder. This is all in the growing phase for the child as well as the parents. I have heard said, You pay for your sins with your children. This is a distressing reference, but it does hold some truth. You will start to understand the pain your parents went through with you. You will appreciate your parents more. This is the circle of life.

You are a legal adult by age, but you become a grown-up when your first child arrives. You believe you can do a better job than your parents did. This in some cases is true, but for most of us, it is a wake-up call about the wonderful job our parents did to raise us.

Grandparents enjoying each other's company with no children in sight.

How can a grandparent enjoy a child more than the parents? Now, I am a grandparent, and it is becoming clearer to me why this is. I am now going to lay this secret out for you. Grandparents enjoy their grandchildren because once the visit is over, the children go back home! Grandparents are on cloud nine watching as their own children go through child raising struggles. Your parents tried to teach you. Well, now it is your turn! You will find yourself acting the same as your parents did with you. You will finally know the nightmare you put them through.

You will start looking forward to the day that you and your spouse can have your home all to yourselves. Your parents will ask you, “Do you remember when we told you to wait to have children and not rush into it?” They will laugh when you answer, “No.” They will always be there for you, as you will be with your children. However, the advice for you will only come when you ask for it. No longer are your parents bound to raise you. They tried their best with you, and now get to sit back and watch how their teachings took hold. Yes, your parents made mistakes, and yes, you will too!

Parents have the hardest job known to the human race! We do not understand this until we become parents ourselves. You may look at the way other parents raise their children and try to follow them. This will help in some ways to give you a starting point. However, children need unique teaching designs set for their understanding. Parents with multiple children understand this. Although you love each child with the fullness of your heart, you will find your love different for each of them. This is the awesome thing about love, it can expand in as many ways as is needed. If you do not think so, just talk to parents who have four, five, six kids or more. They will tell you they love all their children, but in different ways for each one. Because of this, I believe the definition of love should be a bunch of question marks expanding into the unknown.

Young boy at the table with his family, holding hands for prayer before dinner.

Children are a blessing from the good Lord above. Children may bring you closer to God as you cry out for his help. Be patient with your children and allow them to go through the different phases of life. This will help your offspring to become well-rounded adults. Disciplining your children is showing the love you have for them to grow up to be the good people they can be. Allowing your children to “run the show” is telling them you do not care how they turn out in life. A respectful adult comes from the years of love and training given by their parents. There is no magic formula for raising your children, but you must do the best you can for them, as your parents did for you.

Children are hard to raise. They, at times, will have you wondering if there is a grand solution to raising children. The only thing I can tell you is, do not rush into having them, and love them no matter how crazy things may seem. I hope in some way this helps. If you are a teenager reading this, try to take it easy on your parents. They are doing their best for you. Take care, my friends, and do not forget to follow me. Remember, we are all in this together.

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