Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Illusion of choice
Today
I encountered an illusion of choice. For bio lab this week we went out into the
glen to measure trees and collect leaves and dirt. We all met in front of the
glen before we dispersed into two different sections of the glen. My professor
said to us that there were going to be two groups, a shorter-walk group and a
longer-walk group, and that we could choose which we would prefer. Then, he
said that also there would be different professors leading each group, so we
could also factor that into our decision. I was prepared to pick the group with
the shorter walk because I wanted lab to last as short as possible. But then my
professor told us that since the class was already basically split evenly, he
would just split that into two groups. I got stuck on the longer walk group
(#bummed) (…not really, it wasn’t actually a long walk). Sarah was in my group
and we got a little bit excited because we realized that it related to our
class and the illusion of choice. We then proceeded to spend the next two hours measuring and sticking nails into trees. The moral of this post is related to how in life, we are often given a choice or an illusion of choice but then it is taken away from us.
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#tbt #truuu
ReplyDeleteI think the most annoying part of this was how he proceeded to give us so many options then told us exactly what to do. It wasn't like the "choose your own adventure" books where we at least get to make supplemental decisions even though the final result has been planned out the entire time. I feel like there really wasn't even the illusion of choice, it was more like false hope in a way. Even though it ended up working out and we enjoyed lab, I still think he could have cut the crap and split us up at the beginning like he ended up doing anyway.
I'm kind of relating this to our blog self-grade because Janelle initially told us that we would have to write a piece defending why we think we deserve a certain grade, but then yesterday in class she switched it up and said that we can basically do whatever we want to try and "convince" her, even if it's complete bull. So now I am torn between writing out a serious defensive piece, or finding a more fun, creative way to present the grade I'm giving myself. Similar to the lab situation, I just want to be told what to do so that I can fulfill the professor's expectations.