Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Are you really objective?

Just this morning, something interesting happened in one of the social media groups I am in and it got me thinking. Exactly how objective are we in our thoughts and opinions and to what extent are we unwittingly being influenced by popular, expected or even seemingly unpopular opinions that are not necessarily true or even accurate? Sometimes, even in our most ardent quests for truth we end up becoming victims of the single story syndrome. This is what I mean: It has become quite easy and common to use our personal experiences to filter whatever news we hear and use them to declare our opinions as fact. But are we absolutely sure that our facts are accurate and true? Can we bodly say that, we give enough room for doubt and verification? Are we not allowing our prejudices (Yes, we all have them) to influence our view of things and of people? How many times have we asked ourselves if what we think we know is actually true or even considered the possibility that things were not as we assumed they were? Perception is influenced by experiences and if we believe that our experiences are subjective then it shouldn't be difficult to believe that our opinions, not matter how honest, are still not objective.
I don't have answers to offer, only questions and hopefully, high quality and thought inspiring ones. My desire is to provoke a deeper conversation on objectivity. I would love to hear your thoughts.
PKT

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