For some of us, the all-consuming preoccupation with leaving cert exams have given way to other things. Our kids will soon be exposed to new ideas and unfamiliar sources.

Our kids learned that misinformation and disinformation exists, but it didn’t go as far identifying the more subtle (and common) forms of it. I’d appreciate any concrete ideas for what to teach them, and how to make it interesting. In my experience, if the message is in any way long winded I lose their attention.

I’ve drafted something which I’ll put in a comment below. But basically what served me well growing up was learning about how bias emerges in myself (fallacies, emotional reasoning, basic psychology) as well as in the media (journalists with a pattern of chanting for one perspective, absent or misinterpreted sources, history of credibility, “Chinese whispers” on social media, etc).

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[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 4 points 6 months ago (4 children)

More of a tip for adults, but maybe it can be adapted for kids?: to think what could be the intention behind the intention

For example, in a video where the content creator promotes a gacha (gambling) game, one could ask, "why would he/she do that"? Likely to promote it. But "why would he/she want to promote it"? Likely because he/she profits from it.

It's not a fail-proof method, but it helps seeing tendencies and attempts at social engineering, both in places you'd be normally against, or even in places you'd root for.

[–] governorkeagan_@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I really like that approach, thanks for sharing!

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