My Automatic Attitudinal Response

I can honestly say that I have struggled to write every Well Informed and OTM post this semester. When talking about racism, democracy, or religion, I kind of just shrug these issues off because I was stubborn to express my opinions or had a tough time identifying what my standpoint was to begin with. I’m pretty sure I am the definition of a naïve citizen in this world but, if this class has taught me anything it’s that I need to be more engaged with what is going in society, be informed about all the factual aspects pertaining to these topics, and know myself well enough to be able to know where I stand.

Looking back on my posts, I feel like I’m just generalizing the situation and implying psychological, social or cultural context through research and vaguely through my own perspective. This sounds terrible, but I feel numb to all of these topics when in reality I should be educating myself especially when I’m uncertain about something. I observe Candy, who sits next to me, during class and she is always prepared to look up what we are talking about or anything she is unsure of. I feel I need to take the initiative to be better informed in order to break these cognitive barriers about controversial issues. I need to gain knowledge in all areas of society and if I’m not familiar I need to know reliable resources that will give me the facts.

I believe this fault of mine is a result of my reliance on social media as my main news source. This quote by Professor Young opened my eyes to how easily we can be persuaded to think a certain way without even knowing it, “When our own opinions and positions are bolstered by what can appear to be a majority of others, we can easily become entrenched in a skewed perspective of reality.” I clearly need to expand my resources. I am a victim of framing my perspective on society through social media when I need to be able to see past the biases that they threw at me. I have to research both sides and be neutral in order to overcome hidden assumptions, ethnocentrism, and primary certitudes.

I’m not by any mean saying that I’m not bias or prejudice in certain situations, but I think I’m naïve to it because I keep everything to myself so I’m not sure how people will react. I don’t have much feedback to fall back on, but I try my best to fight just expressing my own opinions no matter what. I respect people’s points of views, backgrounds, and cultures and allow them to be free about it too. I will say I joke a lot about stereotypes in the kindest way possible without offending anyone, but I think I do a good job of playing devil’s advocate in a discussion. The barrier that I most need to work on is be more educated and have valid reasoning behind my views while still being open to others.