Garbage in, garbage out – GIGO – is a term they use in Computer Science that states the idea that incorrect input will always produce faulty output. Works for life too. This semester, I’m teaching Media and Information Literacy to my students. It’s a worthwhile and necessary subject that they put into the senior high school curriculum. The thing about teaching it though is that I constantly have to evaluate where I am in the spectrum of media producers and consumers.
In the course of the semester we will talk about fake news and visual literacy and being a responsible social media user. I realize that as I say things out loud about what they should and shouldn’t do, I often run the risk of being a hypocrite. It’d be so easy for them to check on social media account and determine whether or not I’m practicing what I preach. They’d call me out on it too. In fact, sometimes, I just save them the trouble and call myself out.
In a technologically advanced age, it’s not just what we project or how we project ourselves that matters. I’ve realized that how others project themselves to me has an effect on my disposition. I’ve noticed that certain posts trigger unwarranted feelings of anger and frustration that I cannot seem to control.
I know that certain people would intentionally do the same to me. And if I am not aware of it, I can very well be led into situations where, to be honest, I don’t like myself. Political issues sometimes make me feel drained and helpless. Certain people make me feel sarcastic and so I respond with much more bitterness than I would have liked. But there are other people, too, who send me funny videos and comic strips that make my day a little brighter.
While it is true that I cannot control what people say or do, especially online, I can control whether I actually am in a position to be affected by it. The snooze button, then, becomes a crucial gate for the “garbage” that I allow into my life. It has truly saved me from a lot of useless angst and worrying.
On one hand, I don’t want to lock myself up in an ivory tower where I see no evil, hear no evil or speak no evil. I must engage with the world with all its flaws. But on the other hand, I don’t want to be a repository for other people’s garbage either. Bottom line is life’s too short (and too beautiful) to be surrounded by so much garbage.