Discernment

Discernment – 11 letters that make a BIG difference.

I have never made, nor do I now make, any claims to be “technologically advanced”.

Yes, I use Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and other websites.

Yes, I have my own Facebook, and a Facebook group – The Porch.

Yes, I have my own website.

No, I do not know how to “code” – create it or read it.

I know how to copy and paste, LOL.

I know how to ask questions.

I know how to research, read and study.

I know what I like and what I don’t, what I trust and what I don’t.

And I know not to trust everything I read or hear on the Internet.

One of the earliest things I read many years ago still sticks with me.

“Everything on the Internet is true and real” – a direct quote from Abraham Lincoln. LOL

(Yes, I love puns, and stupid dad jokes, and smart-ass remarks 😉 LOL)

I have basically the same attitude online that I have in real life –

People are people.

And they are going to say what they want.

Many are going to tickle your ears to manipulate you.

Trust very few.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

One of the most basic rules in life – whether online or in real face time:

Don’t surrender your own judgment to the tools you use, nor to the people you are around.

Use Google or Alexa or Siri

– but don’t believe it all.

Use Facebook, Instagram, or SnapChat

– but again, don’t believe everything you see or read.

Read the news

– but don’t automatically believe every headline.

If you use Ai?

Same thing y’all – don’t believe everything it tells you.

Use your Bible

– knowing that even the Bible we hold in our hands today was written down and copied many times by people. It is not the original stone commandments written on the mountain by God.

You don’t have to use any of these tools.

You don’t have to like any of these tools.

You get to choose what you like, what you use.

But.

So do I.

And either of us using any of these tools does not mean we must surrender, or that we already have

– our ability to think for ourselves.

One of the best scenes from Hogan’s Heroes had this conversation -

• Major Zolle: I trust no one. Not you, not my mother.
• Col. Klink: Not your mother? Sir, I assure you, I run a modern camp!
• Major Zolle: We will find something wrong, believe me. Another way saying... if a thing sounds too perfect, watch out.

One of the many things we heard a million times (at least) from Rick

– if something sounds too good to be true, it is.

I don’t trust my heart, my mind, my life – or those I love - to Google, Siri, Microsoft, Tik Tok, CNN, Chat GPT, Facebook, or any of the other hundreds of programs or websites found on the Internet.

We all live in a world that is increasingly trying to do the thinking for us.

As if any of these web-based programs can understand this mind of mine! LOL

I use many of these websites and programs

– for reading, for research, for studying, for learning, for growing my mind and my understanding.

To trust what I read or see 139%?

I don’t.

But then, I don’t trust anyone or anything 139%!

In real life, or online.

One of Rick’s doctors, Dr Tobin – the one who caught that something was wrong with me – called me “the woman of a 1,000 questions”.

He would roll his eyes, shake his head and say, “Margaret, trust me.”

My answer?

“Not on my life, not on my husband’s life. Explain this to me so I can understand.”

God bless Dr Tobin – he would smile, wink, and say with a sigh, “Ok.” LOL

I am a woman of Faith

– but not in the Internet, not in our government, not in people.

I know how to drag and drop, copy and paste – when working with the computer.

And I get to thinking –

“If I know how to do this – and I know nothing by comparison

– what can someone do who really knows and understands the workings of creating?”

That has me looking sideways at everything I read and hear online even more!

All this to say –

I don’t understand the anger towards those who lean on any of these programs to get through their days and nights.

I don’t understand the inconsistency in the argument.

There is a BIG difference in –

“I don’t want to use Ai, or Facebook, or any of these programs”

and

“Using either of these makes YOU wrong, while the technology that I happen to use doesn’t count.”

Let’s do the research into what each of the programs do – and are capable of doing.

As well as how much “data” they use or take up.

Using any of these online tools does not automatically make something authentic, ethical, accurate, or good

- - but neither does it automatically make it a lie, unethical, immoral, or evil.

Nor does using them, or not using them, necessarily make the character good or evil of the one sitting at the keyboard!

Google or Siri does not make every bite of information you find to be true.

Using a cameral filter – whether on the camera, a photo editor, or Snapchat – doesn’t make the altered photo documented evidence.

Using a calculator does not guarantee that you have entered the correct numbers.

The tool does NOT eliminate the responsibility of the person using it.

Perhaps – just perhaps – the question isn’t whether we use technology in any of its forms –

Perhaps the question is –

Do we still know how to think for ourselves WHILE using technology?

Can someone lean too heavily?

Yes.

But someone else leans too heavily on drinking, or eating, or watching TV, or any number of things to get through the days and nights.

People have always leaned heavily

– sometimes more, sometimes less.

We are leaners.

Because life is heavy, and times are hard.

Yes, in the yesteryears people leaned heavily on one another

– in person visits, or phone calls.

For a hundred reasons (or more) these days

– some are right, perhaps some are wrong, maybe some are just understandable -

many people do not have others to lean on.

I don’t always agree, or approve, of what someone chooses to lean on –

but I know, too, that many don’t agree or approve of what I choose to lean on.

I think we lean on what – or who – we have, when we need it.

I struggle daily to lean on the Lord.

But even that comes with its own set of questions.

To make sure I am listening to the Lord, not to my own thoughts and voices that play in my mind.

You know, many years ago there was a prominent preacher who found himself in a lot of media trouble

– he was photographed as pushing someone.

And the media blew up

– “How can a so-called man of God be so aggressive?”

What the media did not tell - - it was a skit during a sermon.

The message was about pushing away the evil in our lives.

This was one of the first moments in my adult life that made me realize how off-kilter people are

– they see what they want to see, they say what they want to say, and they will sensationalize anything and everyone.

Then, not so many years ago, someone came to me angry with me over what someone else had said to them about me.

I listened to the anger.

I watched as this person railed against me

– talking as much with their body language and hands as with their words.

Yes, the ire rose up within me

– because instantly I realized the lies, the absolute un-truth, of what had been said about me.

But rather than meet anger with anger

– I took a deep breath, thinking.

When they finished their tirade

– I quietly asked, “Do you believe all this?”

“YES I DO!”, she screamed.

“Ok then. Tell you what, you believe these words. And I will believe everything she has said about you.”

The shocked look on her face was as if I had slapped her, or thrown a bucket of ice water in her face.

“What do you mean – what she has said about me? What has she said?!?!?!”

“It doesn’t matter. We choose to either believe everything we hear, or we question it – and go to the source to find out the truth.”

Sadly people are hypocritical and judgmental

– I struggle with being either, or both.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:3-5, that we should be concerned with getting the log out of our own eye before worrying so much about the speck in someone else’s eye. (my version, lol)

“I have concerns about online programs and accounts, so I choose not to use them.”

Vs

“I have concerns about online programs and accounts, therefore anyone who uses them is doing something inherently wrong.”

Big difference.

The moment someone starts making moral judgments about a person’s character because they use a particular tool, while happily using other technologies that perform some (or the same) functions?

Well, that’s when Coffee Grace and I find it hard to just shut up.

I mostly do – but I tell you what, Coffee Grace has some strong opinions 😉 LOL

For me – in real life, or online?

I choose to question, and to search for the Truth.

And even in the perceived Truth?

Yeah, I still have my 1,000 questions 😉 LOL  

I question technology.

I question people.

And I certainly question myself! LOL

I do not have all the answers.

But I tell you what – I got the questions!

And I love to say, or to hear, “I hadn’t thought of it like that!”

That’s where we step into the arena of Critical Thinking

– or in my Momma’s words, “Using your cotton-picking brain!”

The definition of “Critical Thinking” is (according to Google, which is in itself a hilarious pun/dad joke to me) - -

Critical thinking is a disciplined, reflective process of analyzing information, evaluating evidence, and making well‑justified judgments, characterized by skills such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self‑regulation.

Critical thinking is NOT that I have reached the correct and proper conclusion.

Critical thinking is a PROCESS.

Notice that last part of the process – “self-regulation”.

I have often been told that I need to stop using this or that platform online and do the thinking for myself.

I listen.

And I wonder.

“Are you applying the same standard to your beliefs that you are demanding from me?”

Hopefully, if you have read all the way to here, I am not misunderstood.

This is not a ramble for or against technology in any form.

This is me thinking

– and writing about thinking.

With a 2^nd cup of Coffee Grace to walk me through.

And at this point, I think even my coffee is telling to find something else to think about! 🤣