Maybe you have heard the quote that goes something like this:

“Ignorance is bliss”

And to many people this might be true in different fashions such as ignoring something that you know you have to do and waiting for it to go away.

Or taking someone’s word for a fact without taking some time and effort to check the facts, believing every single word from someone and forming an opinion based on what someone else said about a certain topic.

Throughout history of humanity the masses have been influenced by the way information is relayed to them and it is common for people to just take the information and not question it or allow the first emotions to take over and allow them to maybe distort the message.. 

There are many ways you can interpret a message, depending on who is the source of the communication and if it’s a person you think has a certain level of expertise or not, the way a message is delivered that might be delivered with the intention to cause uncertainty or harm or might be misunderstood due to poor communication.

Some people are ok with taking any information at face value and running with it, and maybe use it to spread information without validating it. This might be gossip or rumors that get started either because the person spreading the information does not care and enjoys the feeling of communicating and getting a reaction from someone which provides a certain sense of temporary fulfillment.

Others are more diligent and perform fact checks which take time and effort to conduct some research on certain topics that might have controversial ways of thinking or are polarizing opinions.

However, most of the issues that humanity has experienced during history are related to ignorance.

The ignorance of not taking time to get to know about something or someone.

It is easy to take information from anywhere and develop an opinion which very often creates negative emotions.

• How many times have you judged someone for their physical appearance without giving yourself time to learn about them?
• How many times do you read something in social media that is inaccurate and makes you feel angry, sad or afraid?
• How many times do you hear someone give an opinion of something and you right away go into those negative emotions?

The beautiful thing about our current times is that we have easy access to so much information that is available at our fingertips and if you want, you can take time and do some research , compare different ways of thinking taking time to educate yourselves and learn more instead of just taking someone’s word for a fact.

So the next time you see or listen to something that ignites a certain emotion in you and makes you question the validity of the message, I encourage you to take some time and do some research, there are so many tools that you can use to educate yourself and be a little more prepared to learn about someone or something.

When you take time to allow yourselves to search for the truth, you are giving yourselves the opportunity to grow and learn as human beings.

So you don’t have to believe everything that someone says, it is ok if you have a different opinion or you don’t know. Take time to learn and be more prepared to accept or contest whatever is being conveyed to you.

And make an extra effort to fight against ignorance starting with you.

E. Luna