The feeling of being proven right

There are a lot of pleasant feelings a human being can have but being proven right must be one of the most fulfilling ones.

If you follow this and the other one of my posts you probably remember that I recommended a piece of sensible reading (of course, sensible, I don’t share anything else), which was the Happiful eZine, an expertly curated off and online publication on mental wellbeing.

On their Issue 105 (P38-39), there is an article on “How to spot mental health misinformation online”, by an integrative counsellor named Georgina Sturmer. With so much “fake news” and AI-generated content it may be hard to tell truth from fake, as some can be so well worded it will convince you it could only have been written by an expert. And it wasn’t. Georgina shares some of the actions we can take to verify the information being shared. Really useful.

This also refers me back to of all the conversations I had with my children (and still have with my youngest). They live what they watch. It is true that they become dependent of that daily dopamine dose and believe most things they watch. We have to constantly keep reminding him that the influencer/YouTubers he follows is no expert, they wing it, taking advantage of him and others like him, that the influencer profits from their naivety.

But I get it, it’s hard for a teenager to admit that they’re wrong and that they’re being cheated by their idols and favourite follows. It probably feels like a betrayal. I know that if I continue drilling that truth into thhem, they’ll eventually come to their senses and start seeing it for what it is. It is in effect a generational clash.

Not everything we see on social media channels is fake. Everybody knows it is impossible to ignore it or to leave without it. But the same as with everything, scepticism and moderation is key. It is important to keep our lines of thinking, to preserve our unique identity and not just follow because others do.