University 210 Project #1

Do you think social media hurts or improves social interactions?

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The Evaluation Sheet we used:

  Name:

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts        

 Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject         

Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          

Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          

Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          

Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side's opinion          

Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          

Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          

Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level            

Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    

Personal Experience       Research

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Our Group Members

Jason Russak: Website Audrey Richards: Videographer Lorena Gonzalez: Organizer Micaylen Brenner: Lead Communicator Alexa Gonzalez: Writer Serena Spencer: Group Leader

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Name: Josh and Tim

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts          

Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject          

Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          

Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          

Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          

Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side’s opinion          

Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          

Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          

Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level            

Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    

Personal Experience       Knowledge

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Name: Daniel

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts          

Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject          

Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          

Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          

Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          

Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side’s opinion          

Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          

Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          

Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level            

Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    

Personal Experience       Knowledge

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Name: Noelle

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts          

Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject          

Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          

Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          

Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          

Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side’s opinion          

Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          

Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          

Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level            

Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    

Personal Experience       Knowledge

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Jason's Reflection

Jason Russak

               Our assignment was to go around and ask people about potentially controversial questions, and then to disagree with whatever points they made, in hopes to start a debate. Although the people we interviewed were told that this was only to get people’s opinions on the topic, it was actually to research the sociology behind debates and to see what critical thinking skills people would display when put into an on the spot conversation.

               One of the biggest things we looked for, aside from the interviewee’s ability to critically think, was how they were at debating. One of the most important parts to a debate is the ability to listen and counteract against the points made by the opposing side, as opposed to just ignoring the points or disregarding the points entirely. Most of the students we interviewed displayed a level of maturity and civility that is to be expected in a debate. However, only about half the students interviewed really had a firm opinion on the subject. Two out of the six students we interviewed walked away from the debate, having listened to the interviewer, on the fence, as opposed to firmly on one of the sides. The other people we interviewed were not able to be persuaded to go to the opposing side, but were able to bring up good counteractive points. However, one of the students we were able to interview, but not able to convince to change sides, was unable to come up with counter points, nor was the student willing to listen to the opposing side. When faced with a counterargument, the student would try to come up with a response back to the best of their ability, as opposed to conceding; showing an aggressive stance to the topic. However, his counterarguments back tended to not have much ration and were mostly irrelevant to the topic at hand.

               Critical thinking is in an important skill that is extremely important that we nurture and develop while in school. Critical thinking can be applied to any field of career to be useful to help climb the ranks. Critical thinking is also an important everyday thing, to help assist in everyday life. A fair amount of the students interviewed displayed critical thinking, primarily to different degrees. But I cannot help but wonder if we had allowed the student a few minutes to prepare with the question beforehand, should they want it, if they would have displayed more critical thinking throughout the interview process.

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Lorena's Reflection

Lorena Gonzalez

Throughout this field Day Assignment, my group was asked to discuss the topic of social media with students attending CSUCI. Although we were asking whether they think social media helps or hurts social interactions, we were really analyzing their critical thinking skills. My group and I filled out evaluation sheets to further look into our participant’s critical thinking. After evaluating, I was able to discover that we have different types of critical thinkers all over CI, some better than others.

Some characteristics of good critical thinking skills include, listening to both sides and being open to new ideas. Noelle, our second participate was a very good critical thinker. She was engaged in the conversation with Micaylen without being rude or defensive. She never interrupted and stayed calm during the interview. Although Noelle did not change her opinion on social media, she did admit to what she did not know. She did not put Micaylen down, saying she was wrong or that her opinion was absurd. Along with Noelle, Josh showed positive characteristics of critical thinking. Josh also did not change his opinion on social media and gave very good examples of why it hurts social interactions. He was very open and really concentrated on what Micaylen was telling him. For some, personal experiences while having a debate leads you to stay close-minded but Josh did not seem to have this issue. Josh brought up personal experiences which I think contributed to his passion for this topic. He saw this controversial issue as exciting and was very patient throughout the discussion.

Other students that we interviewed had greatly opposite critical thinking skills than Josh and Noelle. Our first participant, Nicholas West, was not open to new ideas and seemed uninterested in what our communicator was saying. Firstly, he was quick to put down Micaylen’s thoughts claiming that social media was a, “waste of time,” and, “90 percent of that stuff is crap.” This shows that Nick was not fully listening to her views on the subject. While debating, Micaylen brought up the point that social media was the only way to communicate with friends and family across the globe. Nicholas responded by telling her that it was better to see them in person and that if she really wanted to see them, she will find a way to raise money. It seems that Nick was trying more to win this debate rather than have a discussion, showing that he was using poor critical thinking skills. Another one of our participatnts, Daniel, also seemed more interested in getting his point across. Yes, Daniel did listen to Micaylen’s arguments yet he did interrupt a couple of times. Towards the end he changed his answer from, yes social media hurts interactions, to it could be both.

Does social media hurt social interactions? Yes and no. There is no completely right answer. Although we were not able to get a clear answer after doing this project, we were able to take a closer look at how others think. This assignment was a lot of fun and has made me start to wonder, how exactly we seem to form these opinions in our head. Where do we get the information we use to debate our thoughts? Family, news, personal experiences?  Our critical thinking has been shaped by everything and everyone around us. Which leads me to my next question, if our opinions are shaped by others, are they really our own?

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Alexa's Reflection

Alexa Gonzalez

Professor Jessica Hasson

University 210

September 12, 2014

Critical Thinking Reflection

It is hard to make a point to someone when the both of you have different opinions on a topic. It is even harder when the opposing person argues without analyzing and skillfully conceptualizing the topic, which makes the argument almost pointless. When it comes to critical thinking there are skills that need to develop to be a better critical thinker. One needs to evaluate the issue in order to make a more effective argument. Critical thinkers require synthesizing and implement their observation and or research into the  argument. That is an effective and reasonable critical thinker.

As a group we interviewed many different students on campus with the same questions. What they did not know was that I was individually observing and analyzing their critical thinking skills or if they even made a valid argument. There were three students that stood out to me. Noelle, Daniel, and Tim all made rational arguments. When asked the question and were compelled to defend their side of the argument, they organized their thoughts and gave reasonable arguments that were relevant to the topic. Each student had their own way of interpreting their side, but they all gave supporting evidence that was creditable to their argument. Noelle was the least to interrupt our interviewee. She would wait respectfully for our interviewee to make her point, then address her side to the argument with credibility. She was very effective with her points and could tell she would process everything and then would make her point. Daniel and Tim were also good critical thinkers. They also would give credible evidence based on their experiences and observations and made an effective argument. They did interrupt our interviewee a couple of times to make their point and got somewhat defensive. They each made a significant argument that showed their critical thinking skills by understanding both sides but still giving a logical and accurate argument.

I also observed a non-critical thinker. His name was Nicholas and he seemed unengaged in the conversation. He made no rational or well thought argument. The argument that he did give were invalid and somewhat irrelevant to the topic. The interview did not go long or in depth because in the end he simply said “he did not care”. Which is almost like giving up on the argument.

Critical thinking takes time to develop. It is crucial to make valid and reasonable arguments by skillfully using critical thinking and imposing logic and intellectual processing. Some students in the video showed that and others imposed no critical thinking skills. The ones that did, showed a valid argument with evidence and accuracy. Which made the debate interesting and successful.

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Serena's Reflection

            Critical thinking is defined as the process by which we test claims and arguments and determine which have merit and which do not. In our field day project we went out and interviewed participants and asked them, “Does social media improve or hurt social interactions?” One of our participants, Noelle, showed good critical thinking skills and met our guidelines on our critical thinking evaluation sheet. She argued for the side that social media hurts social interactions. She was able to show her critical thinking skills by listening and accepting the opposing side’s opinion even though she had a strong opinion herself. She was passionate about what she was talking about but did not interrupt or raise her voice in order to get her point across. Another participant, Daniel, showed good skills even though he did interrupt a few times. He also argued that social media hurts social interactions. He was accepting of the other side’s opinion and even changed his position of what he was arguing for. After the argument he said he believes that social media can help social interactions if there is someone from across the country that a person can keep in touch with but he also believes that it could hurt social interactions because we don’t get the face to face contact. He backed up his argument with his personal experiences rather than from evidence. Our participant, Nick, showed very little interest in the topic and changed the subject a few times. He hardly engaged in the conversation and just wanted it to be over. Our last participants, Josh and Tim, showed great critical thinking skills by having multiple reasons to back up their opinion that social media hurts social interactions. They both engaged in the conversation and Josh seemed to be very passionate about what he was talking about but didn’t raise his voice in order to get his point across. After doing this project I know what qualities a critical thinker has and I can now apply these characteristics to myself in order to become a good critical thinker.

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Audrey's Reflection

Audrey Richards

Professor Hasson

University 210-02

14 September 2014

                          Critical Thinking Reflection

     When we are talking to someone about our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs, it is easy to forget that we don’t always agree with each other on certain topics.  It is too easy to feel as though someone thinks we are wrong or “less than” based off them sharing their opposing opinion and we can take it the wrong way and end up making them feel the same way.  How we react and respond to other people shows how well we can critically think.  There are many aspects and skills that are required that helps develop critical thinking.  For an example, the one skill I think that stands out most is when we are having a conversation with someone and how we acknowledge and respond to their thoughts, opinions, and beliefs is what leaves the biggest impression. My group and I decided we would go out and ask random students what they think about social media and if it hurts or influences social interactions while secretly evaluating how well they could critically think on the spot.

     What makes someone a critical thinker is how honest they are with themselves and others by knowing their limitations to topics they don’t know, if they are up for a challenge that comes with controversy, if they are curious to learn more, can base judgments off of facts rather than feelings or emotions, if they are interested in opposing points of view and are willing to listen, and being able to control their feelings in a debate are just to name a few characteristics.  This is what my group and I were looking for while interviewing our random students throughout campus.  We did not have a controversial topic like some of the other groups may have had, but it was something others had an opinion on because technology is becoming a more influential in just about everything we do.  

     While we interviewed people, three people stood out to me. Two of them were good examples of how a critical thinker should be and the other was a good example of a bad example.  The two who expressed critical thinking was Noelle and Josh.  Josh  showed to be the most outspoken person we interviewed.  He provided the most examples based on not only personal experience but also gave credible information on the topic.  It was impressive to see how well he responded to our interviewer who was arguing his opposing side.  He did a good job of accepting her opinions and what she brought to the conversation and made the conversation interesting by not missing a beat, he always had something to say. Josh was in a “group” with our interviewer and a friend of his; while he did a great job letting the interviewer talk and had great points to make himself, he didn’t let his friend do much talking.  However, his friend did seem to be more reserved and quiet.  Noelle was also great when communicating.  She was very respectful and I think as a group, we all knew she was one of the best from the start.  There was hardly interruption from her and how she would handle the pressure from the interviewer counter-arguing everything she said was handled with class.  I think this is the biggest impression someone can leave after a debate and I will definitely be using her as a guide the next time I am having a conversation with someone.  Now on the other hand, Nicolas was someone I hope I am not when talking with others.  He was uninterested in talking to us and it showed.  We asked him if he wanted to participate before filming and he said he did but once the conversation started, he shut down.  It was very difficult for the interviewer to keep the conversation going herself and it was just an awkward situation to be in for all of us.  I hope that he was just camera shy and that he was just unsure of how to react to being filmed and watched by five people as he was being interviewed.  

     This process was a new experience to all of us as we were learning how to argue both sides of our topic.  But I think it was most difficult for those we interviewed.  They had to deal with an audience, with someone almost trying to change their opinions, and trying to come up with new arguments while listening to the interviewer. Personally, I was glad I was behind the camera filming and not in front.  My biggest issue is interrupting someone while they are talking.  I tend to get really excited when I think of a new argument while listening and just blurt out what I am thinking.  I think my other problem is when I get too emotionally involved in a topic and let my feelings take over.  I need to start focusing more on evidence to back up my opinions over just saying, “Well I feel this way. . .”  Thankfully for me, critical thinking can be learned, it just takes some practice.

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We were all there as a group doing the interviews!

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Micaylen's Reflection

Micaylen Brenner

Critical thinking is a hard thing to come by. It is more than just putting extra thought into something. It is the act of thoroughly processing and evaluating information to come up with a belief. An important factor of critical thinking is being able to listen to both sides of the argument and be able to consider all pro’s and con’s of each side. With critical thinking, it is more important to understand the facts than to make an opinion based on personal preferences. As a group we talked to many students on campus about the results of social media on social interactions, giving us an opportunity to evaluate different levels of critical thinking.

With some students, like Josh, Tim, and Daniel, showed higher levels of critical thinking in their own ways. While fully engaging with a high passion level, they were for the most part able to stay away from getting defensive, interrupting and changing the subject. Josh and Tim, while using broad knowledge, also used personal experiences as an argument making it seem as though they were unable to think critically. Daniel was able to listen to both sides and was very accepting of the other side. He would get defensive at times, however it seemed as though he was getting frustrated as to the fact I wasn’t willing to agree to both sides. While not showing it in the best way, he proved to be a good critical thinker by the way he understood both sides of the argument.

There were also students, Nick and Hunter, who stood out in having poor critical thinking skills. Hunter, while able to fully engage in the conversation and not get defensive, would continuously have an excuse or unrealistic resolution to any argument I would bring up. Nick continuously brought up his person experiences with social interactions and wouldn’t answer questions directly. He also seemed very unengaged in the conversation and put off an “I don’t care” emotion. It appeared as though the other side of the argument offended him and that was his way of responding.  

Talking to these students gave me an opportunity to see how critical thinking is important to life and how essential it is to be a critical thinker. I have realized that critical thinking allows someone to open up to more possibilities in life and be more aware of what is going on around them. 

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Extra Evaluations

Name: Nick

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts          Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject          Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side’s opinion          Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level             Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    Personal Experience       Knowledge

Name: Hunter 

Evaluation Sheet

1. Interrupts          Yes        Somewhat        No

2. Changes subject          Yes        Somewhat        No

3. Raises voice          Yes        Somewhat        No

4. Listens to both sides          Yes        Somewhat        No

5. Honest with what she/he doesn’t know          Yes        Somewhat        No

6. Accepting of other side’s opinion          Yes        Somewhat        No

7. Engages in conversation          Yes        Somewhat        No

8. Gets defensive          Yes        Somewhat        No

9. Passion level             Low        Medium           High

10. Answer based on    Personal Experience       Knowledge