“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” ~ Mary Oliver.

The other day I read something that immediately clicked.  The piece spoke about people who have no opinions for themselves, but merely repeat what they hear other people say.  I recognized that, since, as a teenager, I waited until I heard my father’s opinion about things (politics, socioeconomics, heavy subjects) before I made up my own mind.  Despite my education and my reading, it was a normal inclination, to defer to my father (and later my husband), somehow assuming that their knowledge, their analyses, would always be more insightful, more informed than any thoughts I might have. 

Perhaps it was pure laziness on my part.  It was easier to rely on the research of others than to do the work myself.  Easier to borrow the opinions of those I respected than to weigh up both sides of an issue and do the work required to come to an objective conclusion.  And perhaps this is part of the problem we find ourselves in now.  We are spoon-fed pre-digested information from biased news organizations, and may totally miss the truth, the facts behind the stories.

Even worse, with the high tech, glossy AI augmented videos, we may be seeing something totally fabricated, and be unaware that it is fake.  I once bought a box of matches in a New Age store which I kept for the message printed in beautiful font: ‘Doubt everything, find your own light’.  It was supposedly a quote from the Buddha, but like some of the many quotes ascribed to Bob Marley, who knows? I guess I should doubt that also!

It seems that every day there are new ways to scam people, and though many of the schemes target older adults (a category I apparently fall into!) the young are just as likely to be misled.  Phone calls coming (supposedly) from your bank? Fake.  WhatsApp messages coming from your nephew needing a quick loan to be sent to somebody else? Fake.  Your son involved in an accident resulting in injury to a pregnant woman, with money to be wired (or even crypto currency – that would be my hard no!)? Fake.  Just about anything coming out of the mouth of our current head of state? Worse than fake – deliberate misinformation.

When I went back to school (at age 50) to obtain my bachelor’s degree in nursing (my original training program had been hospital-based, resulting in a diploma), one of the first (and most useful) classes was entitled ‘The Nurse as a scholar’.  We were all working professionals, most of us were working mothers, and the program began with an assumption that we would be unfamiliar with on-line learning and posting; writing papers in the dreaded APA format (no Chat GPT to do it for us!); accessing academic articles for reference, and all the other fun things that were required for our course work.  We were assigned a website to research, to evaluate its effectiveness, its credibility, its value as a source.  It was dedicated to an uncommon animal, endemic to the Pacific Northwest, and was a very engaging site, with photos and facts and citations.  And it was totally fake!

That was twenty years ago, so I can only imagine how much better they have gotten at creating imaginary (or alternative) facts by now.  It is a dangerous world in which to be naïve or gullible.  Where once we were teaching our children about ‘stranger danger’, now we must warn our grandchildren about deep fakes and ‘nudification’ technology! AI Technology is advancing faster than the regulations to keep us safe, including the ability to take a photo of a clothed person and render them clothes-less. (Hopefully they trim off some of the excess pounds and remove a few decades of wear and tear while they are at it!).  But, of course, it is no laughing matter if you are the victim of such a technique.  An advocacy group reports that half of US teens have seen pornography generated by AI. 

In a busy world it is hard to do your own research (and hope your sources are legitimate) and so we are at the mercy of our smart phones.  I find myself reading an article, then typing in some of the keywords into my search engine to verify that the story is true, but then the AI generated response may itself be using an unverified source.  Deeper and deeper we go, until we find a source that we trust.  And who has time for that?

They say that conspiracy theories work because they resonate with a preexisting bias.  In other words, we buy into a story when it aligns with what we already believe about a person, or a situation.  Often, we don’t even realize that we have a bias (known as implicit bias), we have already pre-judged a person, or a group of people, and a stereotype.  Then when we hear a story that supports that stereotype, we are more likely to believe it.  It is how racism works.  And those who wish to maintain power over us play into those biases, exploit those preconceived judgments, and further divide an already fractured nation.

Apart from doing our own research, one thing we can do is maintain an open mind.  Ask questions, speak to someone who is involved personally in a situation.  When I stay inside my bubble, speaking only to people who have the same experience as me, I may be perpetuating a fallacy, may actually be helping to spread misinformation.  Before sharing an inflammatory story, ask yourself whether you are spreading knowledge, or actually fanning flames.  Conforming with the concept of ‘right speech’ you can ask yourself: Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it kind? Is it necessary?  One acronym (THINK) adds the question – is it inspiring? There is a saying from the north of England that says: “If in doubt, say nowt” (nowt being dialect for nothing).

The poet Mary Oliver quoted at the top of the page was talking about paying attention to nature in all of its glory.  She could get lost at the edge of a brook, in a field, staring at a tree, or a bee, and wrote beautiful poetry about it all.  Another of her lines is: ‘When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.’ Which is a pretty wonderful way to be.

On this Friday morning, I hope you make time to pay attention to the amazing world we live in, while being wise enough to pay attention to the potential traps of the world wide web. Be on the alert for fakes and scams of all kinds.  And if you do get caught, don’t beat yourself up, these are professionals that are devising and carrying out fraudulent activities.  But get to your bank as soon as possible to try to reverse the damage.  As you scroll through social media, be on the lookout for false information – the algorithms are designed to feed you what you want to see.  And when you see a good joke, or an inspiring story, please continue to share!

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.