Information hygiene for parents: how and why to filter content

"Mommy, have you read your Internets again?!", the pediatrician grumbles during the examination of the child. But really, doctors easily identify mothers who have read horror stories about children's health on the web. Impressionable women bombard them with questions, look for signs of complications of banal childhood diseases and create an unhealthy psychological environment around the baby. This is how the side effect of an excess of information manifests itself — it is not always correct and expert. 

However, mom's anxiety is not the biggest problem. The lack of critical perception sometimes pushes parents to strange conclusions and actions. And the consequences affect the children. What to do?

The essence of information hygieneWe live in a period of increased information flows.

If we compare the amount of information consumed per day by our contemporary and a person who lived 30 years ago, the difference is striking — 5 times more. Moreover, scientists say that we are at the very beginning of the information age, so the amount of content consumed by us will only grow.Read also: What to do if a child says he doesn't want to live: psychologist's advice

The influence of the information flow on the human brain has not been fully investigated. But it is quite obvious that not everything that is written on the Internet is trustworthy.

Therefore, a modern person faces the task of not just passively absorbing content, but filtering it, choosing what will be useful for him and what will not. 

In matters of parenthood, information hygiene is of particular importance: on the basis of information gleaned from the Internet, we sometimes make fateful decisions for children. And it is important to remember that it is not the content authors who are not responsible for the consequences of their advice, but the parents who took note of them.

Content goals: obvious and non-obviousProbably, it will not be a discovery for you that consciousness manipulation technologies are used on the Internet.

Marketers force us to buy goods that we don't always need, politicians collect likes, which are then converted into votes in elections, news sites form an information background, and entertainment resources and social networks take time. 

The first step to conscious content consumption is to understand that any information posted on the web has its own purpose and affects a certain audience.

And if targeted advertising showing us what the advertiser thinks will interest us is a white method of influence, then there are also black ones: untruthful reviews of goods/services, false information from fake accounts, anti-PR.

When reading a blogger's note on Instagram, remember that it may not be his personal opinion and experience, but a paid advertising post. Watching the videos of a popular cook, be prepared that the dish according to his recipe may not work, because the task of the YouTuber is to get more views. Listening to the advice on the forum, be prepared for unpredictable consequences. 

How information from the Internet can harm your childLet's look at an example.

The child touched the hot iron and burned his finger, on which a bubble formed. An inexperienced mother in a panic — what to do? To call an ambulance, the case is not of that scale, but something needs to be done. Then the Internet comes to the rescue: pierce the bubble and anoint the wound with sour cream. Done! The next day, a baby with a finger swollen from tissue infection goes to the emergency room, accompanied by an alarmed mother: "How so, I did everything right!".

This is a very banal example of mindless consumption of information from the network. In fact, the real harm comes from recommendations and manipulative stuffing with less obvious consequences. For example, inspired by the idea of homeschooling, parents take their child out of school, register in online systems for home schooling. Everything is going according to plan. But some time passes, and the child becomes nervous, sullen and even uncontrollable. Why? Most likely, because this form of education simply does not suit him — he wants to spend time with friends, attend school events, and it's boring to stay at home all day. 

And after all, naive parents do not even suspect that information from the public, which promotes the services of tutors, pushed them to this step. Of course, any negative reviews about homeschooling are removed there, because it is much easier to sell tutoring services to parents of children studying at home. How to learn how to filter information from the web: 5 tips

Not every content requires in-depth analysis.

But at least it is extremely important to check the validity of the tips that you plan to follow. So, to filter the information flow from the network, use the principles of fact-checking:

1. Find the original source of the information. If there is a reference to the words of a famous person (for example, in advertisements for children's products they write "Dr. Komarovsky recommends"), look for his page in social networks and check whether he has said this publicly, whether he is the face of this brand. A resource for verifying the validity of facts is the Google Academy. This is a search for scientific publications. In it, you can check tips, statements and statistics on a variety of topics, including health. You can search in Russian, but much more materials are in English. 
2. Gather different points of view on one problem. For example, you decide how to vaccinate a child — according to a standard calendar or an individual schedule, whether to put vaccines that are not included in the list of mandatory ones, or even postpone the issue of immunization for several years (if there are contraindications). In addition to information from the Internet, consult with a pediatrician, an immunologist. And only then make a decision.
3. Learn to identify the purpose of information. If you understand that you are being manipulated, it is much more difficult to get a target action from you. For example, you came across an advertisement for children's mattresses made of coconut fiber. The manufacturer claims: this is the best material for a mattress in a baby's crib, proven by research. Of course, the law obliges the advertiser to indicate by whom and when the research was conducted. But if you dig deeper, it was testing of a small focus group, funded by the manufacturer itself. Can we consider its results objective and trustworthy?
4. Excessive emotionality when submitting information should alert you. This format is used at various parent online hangouts: forums, communities in social networks. The authors have one task — to evoke the right emotions in the audience and make them perform a targeted action. Ignoring ads and posts that affect your emotions will help not only protect your money, but also your child. For example, you watched an interesting, but deceitful video review of one of the models of children's smart watches. We bought them, gave them to the child. A few days later, the teacher calls you and informs you that the child has gone home by himself. At the same time, the sensor on the watch shows that he is at school, that is, the purchase did not justify the money spent. Who is to blame — the manufacturer of low-quality watches, the author of a fake video review? Or are you, because you did not get acquainted with the characteristics of the product, did not compare them with other models and made an emotional decision to buy?
5. Get information only from reliable sources. Bookmark sites that are trustworthy in your browser. Subscribe to groups with pre-moderation of content (admins usually delete posts with hidden ads, and mark paid publications with a special mark or comment). When communicating on forums, pay attention only to the advice of users with old accounts with a large number of responses and an established reputation. 

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Information hygiene for parents is an important condition for conscious consumption of content. You need to master the skill of critical attitude to information from the network, because then you will need to create a safe information environment for the child — and this task is already many times more difficult.