Critical Thinking and Media Literacy

On most occasions we have been told that the internet is a great source of information, where we can navigate in search of more and new knowledge, fun, how to communicate with acquaintances or family who are far away from us and much more information. But we must also know that in this great source of information where there are criticisms, it is not a place where we can say that it is 100% quiet, you can find many dangers among them are: scams, false information, computer viruses, even other people can be found with the sole purpose of hurting and making others feel terrible just for fun, for these cases it is very important to always be well informed about these dangers and others that exist in the world of technology, knowing how to avoid them to be immersed in these networks and sources of information to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future, in our life projects or general thoughts. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.

Just as in the centuries to which we are successors, one could not trust everything that was published or communicated in the media of those times, in today's times we cannot trust the great variety of information that circulates on the internet. Thanks to the new technologies we have many sources of information that in earlier times would not have been believed to exist. But we must also be very careful, because in addition to the information that is useful to us, we are also exposed to false and even dangerous information for our lives. Most of all for new people who are just learning about these media, should be more careful because they are more vulnerable, as they can believe in a strange or false news just because it is on the internet or just because a friend or colleague shared it, for this reason when we do not connect to the sources of information we must always have the reason for the doubt as these can help us to verify and not fall into these deceptions by misinformation and always ask yourself questions such as: 1) Who is the creator and what authority does he/she have? 2) What are the possible intentions and prejudices of the person who has sent this information through the network? 3) Are the sources and bibliographical references indicated? 4) Are the data up to date?.

These simple questions can help us avoid misinformation or save us from computer viruses that can steal our personal information.