‘Bhaiyya,’ said Rinku. ‘Rahul believes every forward he gets and forms his opinions and makes decisions based on it.’
‘But how do I know what’s real and what’s not?’ asked Rahul. ‘They look equally believable.’
‘True,’ said Rakesh. ‘But as adults, we should discern between what’s real and what’s not to make the right decisions. Real knowledge comes from experts who have put in time and effort in understanding a subject thoroughly. Superfluous knowledge comes from piecing random data with no basis or depth.’
‘But we can still get fooled by superfluous knowledge, right?’ asked Rahul. ‘How do we know?’
‘True,’ said Rakesh. ‘Can you differentiate between your professor who has studied a subject for decades and someone who has listened to his lectures for a year and has started teaching?’
‘Yes,’ said Rinku. ‘Our professor would encourage questions, answer them and make us look deeper. He’d focus on improving our understanding, not showing off his knowledge.’
‘The other guy would read out the main points, not go in-depth and sidestep questions,’ said Rahul. ‘He’d want to show off, not impart knowledge. We’d have to opt for tuitions.’
‘Right,’ said Rakesh. ‘Real experts operate within their Circle of Competence — they speak only about what they know and admit to not knowing what’s beyond their competence. Superfluous knowledge operates on thin information, so the person is insecure and never accepts his limitations. The difference then — experts recognise the limits of what they know and seek to clarify through facts, while those who are fake defend whatever little they know and obfuscate the issue by distracting through sensational or emotional statements.’
‘Hmm,’ said Rinku. ‘We can differentiate between political agendas and fake news also by using this.’
‘Yes,’ said Rakesh. ‘To spot real information check for the credibility of the source, depth of knowledge, official statistics and authentic images. Superficial knowledge shows up as general statements, hearsay, partial truths, misleading images and emotional appeal. If you get a ‘sense’ of it being untrue, verify facts using fact-checking sites like snopes.com.’
‘True,’ said Rinku. ‘Real information makes us feel like we have understood all points leading to considered decisions, while fake information makes us take sides and get irrational.’
‘Thanks,’ said Rahul. ‘So less forwarding and more checking when we sense the information isn’t true, for better decisions.’
