The overabundance of information in the digital world has created a cycle of problems and solutions, such as:
- disinformation/misinformation and fact-checking
- the need for content moderation
- the need for media and information literacy and critical thinking
“The relentless stream of information has turned human attention into a scarce resource to be seized and exploited by advertisers and content providers. Investing effortful and conscious critical thinking in sources that should have been ignored in the first place means that one’s attention has already been expropriated (Caulfield, 2018).
“Digital literacy and critical thinking should therefore include a focus on the competence of critical ignoring: choosing what to ignore, learning how to resist low-quality and misleading but cognitively attractive information, and deciding where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities.”
Being selective about available information is at the heart of human cognition. Our brains do this naturally, filtering out multiple competing stimuli. [Related:: Wired for Story (Book)]
Shocking or emotionally-charged information usually signals potential dangers or rewards - a fact exploited by content creators and advertisers to hack virality. Moral-emotional language (e.g. language evoking moral outrage) generates more reactions and shares.
This is all part of a competition for attention known as the attention economy.
Deliberate ignorance is the conscious choice to ignore information, even when the costs of obtaining it aren’t significant. Some reasons people might deliberately ignore information:
- avoid anticipated negative emotions
- ensure fairness
- maximize suspense or surprise
Critical ignoring is a type of deliberate ignorance. It means selectively filtering or blocking out information, in order to control one’s information environment. Besides the reasons above, it can also be done to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.
This is compatible with other information literacy skills such as:
- finding reliable information
- verifying sources
- recognizing misleading, distracting or potentially harmful information