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You can’t be lazy about history. At some point, the questions of the past must be answered and if you want the truth, you must look towards gathering more than one consensus or one source. With the advent of the computer, we have at our finger tips, one of the most powerful tools mankind has developed to store and record history. Unfortunately, this gives rise to some spectacular false information. Right now as history is being recorded, in the United States of America, they have elected a new President, who lies without hesitation. Today, even though it’s been proven false, he has said he won the popular vote when in fact, the opposite was true. Because this is written and reported in the news, some people will believe this. If in the future, we only read this, our view of history is skewed.
My initial thought on history, “History is a way to document the past for future generations. No way forward is possible unless we know where we came from. History is life, lived daily.” Still stands as what I think History is. However, I would add a caveat that you can not be lazy and you must bring common sence to the table of how you view what you are reading.
As this generation and future generations are coming to terms with how history is recorded through many medias, they will have to be even more diligent about what sources of information they use. It is my hope that they can understand the dangers that lie with such media as Facebook and Twitter. Speculation and gossip is not news and it is certainly not recorded history.