Get an Accurate Picture

Getting an accurate picture on various issues is difficult. Governments and companies tell half-truths. Mass-media channels often promise unbiased reporting yet do not follow through. Doctors do not always thoroughly explain the side-effects of medicine they give us. Is there a way to get information that can be trusted?

The arrival of the Internet was hailed by many as a means of tapping reliable sources of information from around the globe. That is possible, of course, if you know just where to click your mouse. “At its best, the Internet can educate more people faster than any media tool. At its worst, it can make people dumber faster than any media tool,” said an editorial in The New York Times.

The editorial continued: “Because the Internet has an aura of ‘technology’ surrounding it, the uneducated believe information from it even more. They don’t realize that the Internet, at its ugliest, is just an open sewer: an electronic conduit for untreated, unfiltered information.” Unfortunately, as the writer pointed out, there is no software program to delete the trash.

Anyone can put anything on the Internet, in a magazine, or in a book. Thus, we need to use discernment and educate ourselves so that we do not gullibly believe whatever we read. Those of us who want accurate information have to establish that our source is reliable. This can take time. But once we do so and get a more complete picture, we can be sound in our thinking, correct in judgment, and confident when making important decisions.