After reviewing the four social errors and biases in the textbook, I think I would say
that I unfortunately am most affected by social expectations. As much as I would like
to say that none of the social errors relate to me, I would say that social expectations
in our world today are hard to avoid – especially due to social media. Things like
fads, bandwagons, the newest reality topics, or even unintentional stereotyping are
things that I catch myself being caught up on while spending time on social media
platforms.
According to the textbook chapter 5, a fallacy is an argument that appears on the
outside to be correct but upon further investigating, isn’t. There are many different
types of fallacies, but one that I have seen a lot in life such as media and dealt with
in arguments myself is the accent fallacy. The accent fallacy is all about which word
the stress is put upon. An example of accent fallacy; I asked my niece to stop playing
on the fence because I was worried she would fall, and she responded that she
wasn’t playing, she was sitting. Obviously to an adult, the point of my original
request was not about her playing, it was about her being on and around the old
fence.
I think both chapters and all of the information this week was interesting. It was very
much review for me because I took a philosophy course last year that had a lot to do
with fallacies, thinking, evidence, knowledge and limitations. I think they are all very
interesting to learn about and I enjoyed reading new information on the topics. I
think one thing that I would like to learn more about is the social errors that occur
and how to best learn to work with them in our lives today because I don’t think they
are specifically all bad, depending on how you view and use them to benefit and live
appropriately.
