Skip to main content

Don't Believe Everything You Hear!

 Hey Everyone!

I have learned SO MUCH in just these past two weeks and I'm excited to share some of that knowledge with all of you! A theme I've noticed in several of my classes has been the importance of looking into the research myself before believing things I read or hear. I definitely don't think I used to do that haha. Especially if it was a friend or family member telling me something, I'd believe it without question. But I'm learning that even if there seems to be data proving that things are a certain way, there are many ways numbers can be misrepresented and graphs can be misleading. There are many components that must be included in an experiment to get correct data. 

Have you ever heard something and passed it on to a bunch of people only to find out later that you were wrong? I definitely have! I remember one specific time in high school. I had donated blood for the first time and was talking to a classmate who had donated plasma instead. He said that when they take your blood it cools down to room temperature so when they give it back to you after removing the plasma, it's freezing cold and feels like ice in your veins. When people saw the bandage on my arm the rest of the day at school they would ask how it went or say how brave I was because they were too scared of needles to donate blood. I would answer something along the lines of "Oh donating blood is nothing! You should hear what happens when you donate plasma!" and then I would proceed to tell them the process my classmate had explained to me. Well, several years later I decided to donate plasma for myself. I discovered that it wasn't cold blood throughout the process that makes people's arms cold, it's the saline they give you after to help your body replace the plasma that was taken. I felt so stupid for believing what one person had told me and passing false information to so many people! But with all of the things I've learned this week I'm a lot less likely to make a mistake like that again. I know how to check the facts! 

I don't have room in this post for all of the things I learned about finding truth, but I'd like to touch on just a couple key points. When conducting an experiment it's really important to have a control group. If you are trying to prove that one thing is similar or different than "normal", there is no way to know what "normal" is unless you collect data for that group as well. Another essential aspect of a quality experiment is that your sample group must include a variety of different kinds of people. You can't claim your data represents the entire population of the United States if you only surveyed/observed teenage girls. Depending on the group you are studying, you should include people that differ in age, race, gender, etc.

In closing I want to mention a really interesting documentary called "The New Economic Reality: Demographic Winter" that gives an example of what I've discussed in this post. It discusses the popular belief that the world is overpopulated and there are not enough resources to support everyone. I can definitely say I was surprised by their findings and the issues they discussed that are different from what many people might expect. I highly recommend watching this documentary if this topic interests you! (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XQjfG2wYc (Part 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw3OQgFsHZI 

Well, that's all I've got for today, see you next week!

Comments

  1. Kira JensenSeptember 30, 2021 at 8:41 PM

    I love your personal story! lol I have done that quite often myself! You're right, we can't just take things at face value because the process of gathering data is complicated and results can be skewed! I love how you talked about how we should be searching for truth, not just a result we want to see.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family Income

  Hey everyone! Once again, I have been blown away this week by the eye-opening things I have learned that I had no idea about! This week we talked about providing for a family, with a lot of focus on the important role fathers play. Many families make the decision to have the mother start working because of the benefits they believe will come from having a second income. However, what I learned this week about the costs versus the benefits will probably surprise you just as much as it surprised me. Our professor illustrated the point he wanted to make by telling us about a case study of a family that was done in which an accountant came in and added up all of their expenses and determined which ones came as a result of the mother working. The family they chose had a pretty average income. The father was making about $42,000 a year working 45 hours a week, and the mother was making about $21,000 working 35 hours a week. Some of these expenses, like childcare, were obvious, but a lo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Family Roles

  Hey everyone! It’s been a great week of learning up here in Rexburg! The idea I found most interesting was that each member of a family has a role to play. One of the articles I read to prepare for class mentioned four roles kids may play in the family. It was really interesting to me noticing the way some of the characteristics it explained rang very true with my sisters and I, while others didn’t seem to at all. It said the oldest is the “hero” in that this child is generally the caretaker of the rest of the younger siblings and that they tend to do well academically. The second child is the “delinquent”. These children usually have a hard time because the oldest seems to get a lot of attention from the parents, so they seek that attention in different ways from the oldest. The third child is the “invisible child. They try to keep a low profile because they want to lessen the tension within the family as a whole. The fourth child is the “clown”. These children attempt to use hu...
1 comment
Read more

Dating

  I really enjoyed the topic we focused on in class this week and definitely learned a lot of new things! We talked about preparing for marriage and the critical role dating plays in that preparation. Going on actual dates provides quality time to get to know someone without being distracted by other things. I learned that there are three “p’s” that define an official date: planned, paid for, and paired off. I really like that description because it is simple and clear which is really helpful because it can be hard to tell what is considered a date sometimes. That way expectations are clear for both people and you don’t have as much stress of the unknown. You can just relax, have fun, and focus on getting to know someone new! Hanging out in a group of guys and girls can be super fun, but it does not provide the ideal atmosphere of getting to know and build a relationship with someone the way a well-planned date can. Another aspect that greatly influences dating is how well two peop...
Post a Comment
Read more