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. b 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.
