Crap Detection

Today while scanning few tweets came across a word – “Crap Detection”. A word I discovered courtesy - Howard Rheingold. "Crap detection," as Hemingway called it half a century ago, is more important than ever before, now that the automation of crapcasting has generated its own word: "spamming."

Doug Toft provides an operational definition of crap through which he suggest that we utter crap when we string together:

• Words that—upon close examination—have no meaning
• Assertions that—upon close examination—violate logic
• Arguments that—upon close examination—have little or no supporting evidence
• Sentences that—upon close examination—are unnecessarily ugly

Neil Postman’s classic essay Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection contains a handy taxonomy of forms of bullshit, and some useful “laws” such as: Almost nothing is about what you think it is about–including you.{” Kindly excuse me the use of word Bull%#*^}. In his work he argues that how people or information disseminators puts Pomposity, Fanaticism, Inanity and Superstition to best of use to attract crowd towards them. He further opines that each person’s crap-detector is embedded in their value system; if you want to teach the art of crap-detecting, you must help them become aware of their values.

 

With the emergence of information availability through the means of online space and more so due to Social Media, Crap Detection seems to be gaining on the relevancy meters of individuals than ever before. We as information seekers needs to determine what’s quality/healthy information vs the Crap.

 

Howard Rheingold in his article opines "Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research". He further emphasize the need to know about information online is how to detect crap, a technical term I use for information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception."

 

In the below video Howard explains the importance and process of crap detection.

 

Crap Detection by Howard Rheingold

The important of crap detections in today's world is becoming more imperative than ever due to the overwhelming quantity of data or information available, which lead us to lack or misconceive or mis-representative knowledge. Equally, this is more important concerning Child Safety through adequate teaching young ones to distinguish between healthy or unhealthy information.   

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