Would you say that social media has negatively affect people's critical thinking skills?

[Anonymous]

This may be a question with an obvious answer, so feel free to mock, but I wanted to ask this regardless.

I am personally baffled by the amount of nuance, or lack thereof, on the internet. YouTube comment sections, forum threads, Twitter replies, you name it. My experience with various social media is somewhat limited, admittedly, so I could just be referring to the vocal minority. Also, you could argue that it's not necessarily social media's fault, but the people who use it, which would also be fair to assume, in my opinion.

What's your take on the matter?

[jorfan3]

I would say social media has a negative affect on people's SOCIAL skills. I never really thought about critical thinking skills.

I think critical thinking is something that is taught and developed. The US ranks high on testing in this regard and stomps the Japanese on critical thinking.

As people use social media, their attention spans might be diminishing, so their critical thinking skills could be affected, I suppose.

[jshm2]

Well, I am baffled by your lack of nuance. Way to go, kiddo.

Thinking skills are a part of education more than interaction - which is what social media is. So you're wrong in your assessment, and should hang your head in shame for being a pretentious prick.

[Anonymous]

Probably, but then REGULAR media isn't too good for people's critical thinking skills either. And it would seem that the educational establishment is increasingly turning against critical thinking in favor of uncritical acceptance of the ideology they'd like to pump out.

If you'd like to get better at critical thinking, you're going to have to pursue it independently.