While at work on my current job, My absolute favorite think to drink is a cold Coca
Cola. I always bring one in everyday and put it in the freezer. Everyone that knows me
knows this. On this particular day, my COLD Coca Cola was missing but there was a hot
one there to replace it I guess. When I noticed it, my co-worker that was there with me
assumed I was going to be highly upset. I was for a second because, who would do this,
that was my thought. I assumed it had to be someone on the night cleanup crew because
I again assumed it would never be the people that knew it was mine. Well low and
behold it was the co-worker standing next to me. Using my critical thinking skills
reasoning skills, this argument could have been adjusted because the night clean-up crew
does not have access to where the refrigerators are.I utilize social media occasionally. I
started noticing people with beautiful skin a lot. I then started following them trying to
sneak and find out more about their skin regiments. I happen to make a comment in front
of my daughter about it. My daughter is 18 and well versed on social media of course.
She says "Mom, those are filters that people are using to add a pop to their looks", I was
looking with mouth wide open in disbelief. That is when I realized that fallacy had taken
over me. They had me believing it was real. If I had did my research a bit more with
reason and critical thinking skills, I would have noticed that it was a trend that was going
on and I was clearly not up on whats new in the world. When I worked as a supervisor
in customer service, Susan a customer service agent came to me and ask if she might
change work space. Susan expressed that Kim the new worker next to her made her
uncomfortable. I asked, what has she done or said that made her uncomfortable? While
she didn't have any exchanges with Kim. Susan had overheard other employees saying
Kim was a troublemaker. Susan didn’t want to deal with any part of that. Susan was
paying more attention to rumors. Making assumptions created on what she overheard from
her other co-workers. I decided not to approve Susan’s request to move. I then ask her to
think back to when she was a new employee. How would she feel if that new employee
had been herself? By the end of the week, they were in the break room having lunch
together. Things changed when she took the time to form her own opinion, instead of
listening to the assumptions of others.Another example is a lot of people’s social media
page will lead you to believe that they are fabulous successfully and happy with their life.
The sad reality is they are broke and depressed. You learn fast that people do not always
tell the whole truth when it comes to their social media post. How many times has
someone started talking to someone on social media based on the picture they see on their
profile? Only to face reality when you meet face to face. Then you get glimpse of reality
when the real story comes out. I know you have heard of these scandals were people we
would never think the of their character. Even when we know nothing more about them
except what they portray in the social media world. What I have learned over the years
is that you cannot always take things at face value. If it’s too good to be true, do your
research, chances are it’s an illusion. e My younger sister and I got into an argument and
her point of view came from what she experienced with her friend she had from high
school. She is going to school for PT and I am going for business. There would be times
where she would be difficult to be around because she was so stressed about her classes.
I told her if she broke it down and took it in strides it would build up so bad. She
brought in the fact that her previous class mate was so stressed that she dropped out and
that that same scenario was going to happen with her. I believe she was arguing out of a
biased opinion because she did not think of the possible reasons as to why maybe her
friend couldn't keep up with the work load.
I am not a very political person and I choose to be that way. I don't pay attention enough
either to where I feel like I could make a credible argument. My fiance has always been
passionate about who he stands by and I do not entirely know if it's because of his father
or he really stands behind what he knows. Some things in the media and what politicians
speak on though do spark my attention because of what they deal with. When I try to
make an argument or an opinion about the subject, he has very biased opinions because
if it against the party he is for, it is already wrong. He also brings up the fact that I am
open about not wanting to pay attention to the politics so I may not know the whole
picture. By this time I just listen to what he says, but know that I have more logical
reasoning behind my side of the argument than just being strong willed about a political
side. On example of an argument I can think of is one that I had with my kids several
times. I wanted to convince them to well in school and to care about their grades. I
emphasized that they needed to, at the very least, graduate high school with strong grades.
I would point out that if they didn’t, they would have to work extremely hard to make a
living and would probably struggle financially for the most of it. I would even use my
husband as an example because he didn’t finish school, and he does mostly hard manual
labor for a poor wage. I think I used bias because of his situation and the fallacy that
you can’t succeed without good grades.My next example also involves one of my
daughters. The dating scene is so different now and things that were considered
inappropriate when I was dating are now the norm apparently. She had just started dating
a guy when she decided to go on vacation with him. I immediately starting making him
look like a bald person that she couldn’t trust when I knew nothing about him. That was
not fair to him or her because I was so biased in my opinion, not only because of the
way I grew up, but also because I just wanted to protect her. I definitely should have
been more open and to give him a chance to prove himself. Either way, she still went
but it wasn’t without a good fight from me. I think that with current news outlets and
social media, we come across biased information on a daily basis. News outlets
sometimes stretch the truth in order to convince their viewers to believe what they want
them to believe. It can be hard to tell what statements are factual and which are fallacy.
With the elections closing in many people often share their political opinions in less than
factual ways, spreading bias and assumption. Most people don't know everything about
every single candidate and this leads to lots of assumption about what candidates believe.
Social media further fuels these issues with political arguments online. Articles that are
shared online aren't always accurate which just spreads false and biased information to
get the audience to believe something that isn't true. Critical thinking plays a huge role in
these issues, as we learn what news sources are accurate and which aren't we can make
the decision not to read those articles or engage in arguments and the spreading of false
information both online and in person. When critical thinking is used, it becomes easier
to see what information is biased and fallacy and what information is accurate. I work at
an Adult Education School and therefore we have many students that are working towards
earning their high school diploma or high school equivalency certificate. Most of the front
office have been working at the Adult School for quiet sometime, and have seen many
students fail to achieve their goal of earning their high school diploma or high school
equivalency certificate. Therefore, I have witnessed the office staff on many occasions
being rude and disrespectful towards returning students based on their past experience
with the students. The office staff is assuming the returning students will once again fail
to achieve their goals as well as being bias towards the group of Adult Education
students. Everyone has reasons as to why they have not finished their goal of earning
their high school diploma or high school equivalency. Life happens and as an Adult
Educator it is our job to help encourage each student even if it is the students 100th time
trying to complete said goals. As an Adult Educator we have to remain open-minded and
understand their are valid reasons an adult student may start and stop continuing their
education. Life happens and shame on the office staff for their assumptions and being
bias towards our Adult Educations Students.Before working for the Adult Education
School, I worked in the fitness industry as an assistant manager; I found missing money
from the cash register, a consistent $20 each month. I brought it to my managers attention
and she tried to cover it up. I was told by an employee they had seen her take money
from the register before, therefore, I had to bring the matter to HR's attention. My
manager than began to find ways to personally attack me by having the IT department
track my cell phone, (which they could not because I did not connect to the company's
WIFI) she had all my emails read and she called each employee in one by one and stood
over their shoulders while she "helped" them write statements against me. This was a case
of an ad hominem fallacy as she attacked my character by having employees falsely write
statements about me (which they did out of fear of losing their jobs and told me so
themselves) and never actually speaking to me on the matter nor getting to the truth of
the matter. My first example is my co worker and I got into an argument a few days ago
about him not showing up for duty. However he complains to me when I be a tab bit late
for duty. The argument could have work out if I could have confronted him about it when
no one was around, but I felt some type of way when he does it in front of people. I
could have been the bigger person in this situation. Another example would be my cousin
and I got into off he say and she say things, someone went back and told something I
said but change the story up . However , my cousin didn't come to me about the situation
but instead she block me off face book. When she could have came to be so we can talk
things out, unfortunately this cousin and I don't communicate at all due to someone not
telling the truth in what I said . I even tried to be the bigger person to apologize but
somethings you just got to keep at a distance especially family. My first example
happened around Christmas time a year ago. My daughter's dad was talking with his son
who at the time was only two. His son was saying how he couldn't wait for Santa to
bring him a fie truck. My daughter's dad made the statement to him that he buys all of
his Christmas gifts. I over heard the conversation from the other room and quickly ran to
tell him not to say things like to him. I was upset because I felt that as a toddler you
should believe in Santa. I told him that he was ruining his son's imagination and growing
him up too fast by telling him things like that. His defense was he work hard to buy all
of the gifts his children ask for and they should know whose actually buying their gifts.
The idea that a jolly old man delivers gifts around the whole world in one night is a bit
of a fallacy, but one that keeps children in the holiday spirit in my opinion. I don't think
its wrong to allow them to believe in Santa Claus for as long as they want.Another
example would be a bias disagreement that I had with a friend of mine. We were
discussing same sex/ gay relationships and how gay parents are able to adopt. Though I
have nothing against gay relationships ( I don't mean to offend anyone with this
statement) I was against gay couples being able to adapt a child. I felt as though a child
being raised in a same sex home would only confuse the child and that would possibly
increase the chances of the child being gay later in life. My friend who is also
heterosexual disagreed with me completely. She had done her research and explained to
me that statistics suggest there isn't a major difference in the gender identity development
in children. She even told me that gay couples are more likely to successfully adopt than
some heterosexual couples. After listening to some of my friend's points and doing some
research of my own, it did help me to be more open minded to the thought of children
being adopted into a same-sex home. Before then, I was completely bias to the idea and
was not interested in hearing in any studies or anything else that may suggest that it was
perfectly normal.
