9 Principles of Personal Information Cleanliness
In the modern world, information security is a challenge not only for companies and states but for each of us as well. Of course, not in terms of resisting information attacks but rather defending ourselves against manipulations of these or those components of the media space.
· The information landscape has changed drastically. The mayhem of word is a sign of our times, namely:
· An increase in the number of information sources – because of popular social networks platforms and new online media;
· A reduction in information quality – extremely high subjectivity of the content and the share of judgements, a lack of double/triple check of information reliability;
· Double standards and abundance of unbalanced items tightly packed with ideologemes.
Even a person who has access to the insider information of the national importance, who thinks critically and who takes an adequate view of the reality can lose the balance of mind when sinking into this troubled water. Thus a new, not that much pleasant but unavoidable communication reality needs new competences. Because complete rejection of mass media is a somewhat strange attitude which does not enhance personal efficiency of the majority of socially integrated citizens. Of course, one may proudly say, “I’ve not switched on TV for ten years” and simultaneously watch YouTube clips that are the heart of TV propaganda; yet, it is hardly fair even to oneself. A much more productive strategy consists in developing an ecological and hygienic system of information exchange with the outer world.
Let’s begin by saying that mass media (both traditional and the so-called new media) have traditional informational functions. Due to them, people
· Function 1. Get information about new events
· Function 2. Get entertained
· Function 3. Try to understand their place in the world
· Function 4. Learn about socially approved and disapproved models of social behavior.
Basing on that, we can formulate principles of personal information safety. We can formulate even more than nine but it will somewhat blur the gist of the issue. That is why we will limit ourselves to the following list:
1. Limit yourself (at least consciously) only to functions 1 and 2 of the media. In the modern world it is not worth relying on the mass media in terms of self-identification and social integration-cum-interaction. Ideologemes and mythologemes are too unreliable and deceptive to consider them guides for action.
2. Try to understand who defines the editorial policy of the media you trust and what economic and political (and probably religious) interests of the person are.
3. On getting any information try to understand who is behind it, what interests this person serves and how much this information can influence your future in particular.
4. If information seems important for your future, find its several interpretations. It is desirable that the sources have different beneficiaries and different editorial policies. Information triangulation is the key to personal information safety.
5. If information seems dubious, don’t disseminate it – you might only like to discuss it with experts for the sake of verification. Because: 1) the anthroposphere is polluted with human thought waste; 2) God did not let us second-guess how our word would come back, slanted; 3) the boomerang effect is noteworthy for the fact that by participating in the promotion of a malicious meme we aggravate information ecology of our habitat even more and get a corresponding feedback.
6. Before becoming an information virus carrier count to 100. In the majority of cases modern manipulations with public conscience depend on a person’s reflexive wish to share a piece of news. That is on an instant deliberate reaction, not a deliberate and critically interpreted response. Thus you should disappoint your manipulators – think before clicking, reposting, sharing, and so on.
7. Treat literary and artistic works of our troublesome times with care. Ideologemes are introduced in these very forms best of all.
8. Look for historic analogies of what is taking place. Of course, history is also a kind of propaganda or a propaganda-like reflection. But by triangulating information you can get interesting and useful results.
9. Read good books by critically thinking and ideologically unbiased authors. This is an excellent antidote.
Any ruling establishment is interested in cultivating their target audiences’ false consciousness – an image of social reality favorable for them. Aiming at things different from wellbeing of these audiences’ representatives. That is why my advice remains the same – take care.
# sapientisat
http://forbes.net.ua/woman/1392414-9-principov-lichnoj-informacionnoj-gigieny
Tags: Psychology, Society