Should We Believe Everything We Read?

"It's good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out." – Jacob Needleman, philosopher.

Should we believe everything that we read? Well, everything has bias. There will always be a certain degree of personal and subjective perspective in every piece of writing and speech, no matter how objective it is aimed to be.

In this sense, when taking in information such as who to vote for, or when reading an article arguing who the most beautiful girl in Hollywood is, a grain of salt is a must, and the realisation that to understand and accept does not mean you must think the same way.

Similarly, it is important to be open to suggestions, wisdom and knowledge imparted by others. However, though one should learn all the ways to fix a light bulb, there's no point fixing one that isn't broken. For instance, if I had believed all the Daily Mail, Ask.com, Wikipedia and E-Online articles I have ever read over my lifetime, I would have thought Hollywood was in space and I would have been self-diagnosed with hundreds of numerous diseases (only a fraction of which I would have actually had), as a hopeless syndrome of over-procrastination.

Therefore, although it is important to listen to others - because that is the only way we may actually learn something - sometimes you need to filter the streams of information that come in.

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