3) My Experience with False Assumptions

Critical thinking is very significant for our lives. It helps us keep open minds about statements and claims. When we critically think, we can solve problems and find solutions or hidden truths.

However, we should be careful when we critically think. Sometimes we even have to critically think after we already did the critical thinking. That actually sounds confusing. XD Anyways, I have an example for what I'm referring to which was part of our reading.

According to Chapter 2 for our Group Communication book, it states there are "Critical Thinking Traps" that we should look out for. One of the traps listed there was "Making false assumptions." Basically, False Assumptions are conclusions that people may think of when something happens out of coincidence. Sometimes, assumptions can be true but there are chances (maybe high) that they are flawed and unrealistic.

For example, I remember my friend and I wanted to randomly visit an old friend. We actually haven't talked to him for more than half a year so we weren't very updated of news about him other than ones posted on Facebook (which turned out to be not very reliable xD). When we arrived outside his house, my friend called him and asked if he could go out. He told my friend that he had a visitor over and his parents would probably not allow it since it was already late at night. However, he said that it would be nice to have some visitors over so he invited us. As my friend and I were walking to his door, we saw him and his "visitor" go outside. Surprisingly, his friend turned out to be my best friend. When my friend and I saw her we were really surprised.

At this point, we did some critical thinking. We discussed that both of us see my best friend and our guy friend writing on each other's Facebook walls. They were always updating each other with their latest news rather than just posting, "So, how was your week/summer?" From our Critical Thinking (which had flawed and not very reliable evidence), we concluded that they probably liked each other and have been hanging out together.

However, this is where we have to use Critical Thinking again. Was my best friend over at our guy friend's house because they liked each other? If we were to use Critical Thinking again, we would probably consider that they were just very good friends and nothing more than that. Maybe we would also consider the fact that they both loved the video games BlazBlue and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and wanted to play against each other in person. There were many other possibilities that we could take into account.

Eventually we found answers and concluded that they didn't like each other in that way. Right now, both of them are dating different people but they still update each other like good friends do.

After my experience, I learned to avoid assumptions more because as our communication book said, they can be "Critical thinking traps." It looked like my best friend and our guy friend liked each other because they have been writing on each others Facebook walls a lot and hanging out with each other. However, our faulty Critical Thinking led us to our False Assumption. It also played a role in group communication because our group (my friend and I) convinced each other that they both liked each other. If one of us was not assuming, the other could probably still convince the other to assume.

- Pink Bean