Samin Jahan

Professor Jamison

FIQWS 10108

10 December 2018

How Knowledge Polarization is a Big Problem in Society Today

            At one point in time, the cyber world has become popular enough to rely on the many facts that we find on the internet. The search engine google has become so common in the mouths of the people that it became a verb. As information technology continues to grow, more and more information will be put on to the internet. We have reached a point in time where the availability of such information is being used abusively. So much that it is becoming harder to notice the difference between information that is real and fake. The cause of this difference is knowledge polarization according to a TED talk by Michael Patrick on “How to see past your own perspective and find truth”.

In the beginning of Patrick’s talk, he states the problem is “we know more, but understand less.” He continues to explain knowledge polarization as a bubble that expands through information that is meant to satisfy our preferences. A modern example he uses is the feed on our social media. Our feed includes news only about what we enjoy hearing or reading about. The result of this among the population is people thinking that they know a lot while not agreeing with each other on what we mutually already know.

The solution to knowledge polarization that Patrick states is humans accepting the fact that we live in a common reality. Patrick gives three methods to accept this fact. Step outside our own perspective and believe in truth, dare to know for yourselves, and being open to change and self-improvement through other’s contribution.

I’ve experienced myself having knowledge polarization when me and a couple of friends were arguing about a question that was posed in class. In the end it turned out actually I was wrong and luckily, I accepted it. I also realized that prior to our debate I haven’t socialized with my friends for a while. So like Patrick said in his talk that our social media feed is polarizing our knowledge, my knowledge was being polarized and I passed off the truth as fake news.

Patrick’s talk reminds me another TED talk given by Kathryn Schultz on “On Being Wrong.” The second point Patrick makes for the people to accept common reality is daring to know which means risking the possibility that you could be wrong. Patrick wants us to accept that what we want and what’s true are different. Kathryn’s talk also mentions not knowing something itself is a beauty and that we shouldn’t be ashamed to present this to others. Both speakers want the people not to be trapped in a bubble that we create for ourselves that makes us always feel right.

The idea of seeing past your own perspective was also taught in class using the picture of two men who have been far away from home for a while. One man has been stuck on an island (land) where the man on the boat (on water) has been stuck on the boat for a while. When they see each other, they are both happy but over different things. The man on the island is happy he can finally get on a boat to go home. Where the man on the boat is happy, he can finally dock on land. The guy on the boat wouldn’t be happy if he saw more water, whereas the guy on the land would. The picture depicts how they are both in desperate conditions and have different conditions, but both are justified for their feelings.

I like how Patrick tackled the great philosophical statement “man is the measure of all things”. Patrick took the statement and applied some conditions to it because it needed a revision. His message was that although this philosophical statement always almost anything to be real, there are somethings that we all agree where the truth cannot be distorted. I believe any other philosophical statement must also have limitations, but we just not have been attempted yet. Philosophy is a very interesting but one of the most complex field out there to study. Patrick did a nice job brining an old philosophical statement into a modern world problem. I believe we should all strive to agree with one another on the simple things that are important to life and not become trapped in the bubble of knowledge polarization.

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