Changing Minds Issues - Essay Example

Changing Minds June 9, Question One In the text, Gardner suggests that fundamentalism is the sound decision to not allow anything to change one’s mind on certain issues. Sometimes seen as being purely stubborn, this philosophy often works to hold people back from new experiences. It is often derived from when one does not like something, and so they make the firm decision to repel anything to do with this issue. This makes it near impossible to change the mind of someone who refuses to allow their mind to be changed. However, there are ways around it. By introducing this new idea as something different and not fully associated with whatever it is that the person claims not to like, one would be able to get that person’s brain processes thinking. Question Two An “Integrated viable identity” is what gives people the sense that they can move on with their lives - it is a way of functioning as a member of society. In order to adhere to the “Integrated viable identity” of our readers, we must make our messages clear. We want our readers to understand what we are saying, how it applies to them, and how they can alter their integrated viable identity to having the identity as one of our readers. It is a matter of making the reader aware that their opinion and views matter. We are able to do this by addressing the topics of which our readers have the most interest in, because it appeals to their identities. The best way to change someone’s mind through our blog would be to provide the right collection of relevant data. Question Three “Representational Rediscrimination” comes down to presenting a new idea in a variety of ways which allow those who are affected to see the idea in their own way. For instance, presenting both Logical and Linguistic ideas on a large scale, so that both intelligences are addressed. As with the Freedman example in our text, we are addressing various groups, such as companies and corporations in order to make a large-scale change of minds. The problem with this is that ideas become more set and defined compared to when people were younger. Therefore it becomes more difficult to illicit a change in thought because of this present resistance. The discrimination that a reader of our blog may feel upon visiting comes from the issues that we represent. If we are presenting information that they strongly disagree with, then they will not return. The best way to fix this would be to present our information in different ways, so as not to trigger the discriminating response. Question Four The important part of the “Designated Driver” model comes down to the presentation of an idea into social media. Gardner uses Jay Winsten’s experiment with presenting the Scandinavian concept of designated drivers into television shows as a means of deterring drunk driving. In this case advertising was key - most Americans spend a good amount of time watching television. The best way to reach someone is make them aware. We could take advantage of advertising and social media to present our own concepts to the general public. Question Five Gardner explains Wetware, Dryware and Goodware are the next stages in changing minds. Wetware, being the human mind, Dryware being artificial intelligence, and Goodware involves ethics. The current work with Wetware in science is to rewire one’s mind in order to help those suffering from learning disorders at an early age. Dryware is working for AI and human brain transmissions as a form of learning. Goodware is about changing ethics based on what is considered ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Gardner wonders if it will be possible to change someone’s mind so much as to affect their ethics. In the future I believe one could take this Wetware technology as it is with learning disabilities, and transform in to help transform Goodware. Although that possibility is perhaps too far off at the moment, not to mention the politics that could be associated with something of that nature - messing with one’s brain and ethics. Question Six There were times when I would be having a conversation with someone and they would not be paying attention, or I would not make my ideas clear enough, so that they were confused. It made both our work suffer because of our poor communication. Sometimes it is important to ask that the person understands what it is you are talking about. It is crucial to state facts, and to not be too vague. If someone is speaking to me, I must use both my ears and follow the conversation – If there is any confusion, I must ask for clarification. It may be boring at times, but it will save me the trouble of redoing things later. Question Seven During the midterm, I outlined my ideas for developing the Gmail account and our Facebook page. It was my belief that expanding on our internet connections would bring about more connections in more places. The way that I went about this was first to have more members of our class join the facebook page, so that their friends may see it and join, expanding our network. In some ways this worked out. We were able to gain more members, though not as many as we would have hoped for. In theory it was practical, had we been able to generate enough interest. That was the problem - not enough people wanted to join. I suppose in the future I could try harder to get the word out. There are other means besides Facebook and Gmail that could be incorporated into my goal to spread the word. Perhaps instituting more creative ideas to capture the attention of fellow students. I still have faith that this marketing could succeed, it just hasn’t taken off yet. Question Eight Most of my work had to do with marketing. I spent a lot of time expanding on our networking for the blog. My main forms of networking came from Facebook and our Gmail account. From here I have learned the importance of publicizing, which I could use to spread ideas within our community. By borrowing on Gardner’s ideas of communities and how they are capable of influencing each other, I would be able to market ideas from our community and spread them to others, or even take the ideas of other communities and use them to influence our own. Question Nine As I explained in the midterm, it is important for our Project to stay updated with current events, as these events are what will change minds the most. So long as our project stayed up to date with current events, people would be able to follow it without any problem. I suppose some ways that our listeners may get confused is if we are not addressing issues that they themselves are aware with, or if we report them incorrectly. Not only would this put them off, but it would demonstrate poor organization on our part, which would only make us less reliable. Some ways to alter this dilemma would be to do adequate research on certain topics before posting them. This way we could not risk looking uninformed. I also believe that we could expand on our topics of discussion. We could address issues that are not just local, but global, and it is especially important to discuss things with our visitors - their attitudes toward certain matters, in order to understand how these issues affect them directly. Outline A. Question One Fundamentalism as a reasoning for being stubborn Introducing an idea as something different to appeal to the fundamentalist B. Question Two Integrated Viable Identity and how our readers need to find an identity from our work C. Question Three Representation Rediscrimination and introducing new ideas in several different ways to appeal to different individuals D. Question Four Providing a new idea to an old problem and spreading messages through various medias E. Question Five Definition of Wetware, Dryware, and Goodware, and how it could be incorporated into the project F. Question Six Communication based on mixed ideas or signals, and the necessity for clarity when presenting them G. Question Seven Work with marketing, and how it was somewhat successful, but not on a large scale H. Question Eight How to influence the community by spreading ideas I. Question Nine The importance of current events and addressing different types of social issues in the blog Citation Gardner, Howard. Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004. Print. Read More