Why everyone should be data literate | Jordan Morrow | TEDxBoise

How many of us have ever been watching the news, and a story comes on, and we get captivated by it, and then we start asking questions such as, "Is this data and information correct?" Or how many of us have ever been in a check-out stand, looking at the newspapers and magazines - and for those that don't know what a newspaper is, it's printed word, not on social media - but how many times have we been in that check-out stand and said, "Nah, that can't be real?" Or third, turning to social media, how many of us have ever been on social media and we see these viral stories that go around that make us think or worry, kind of like the Momo Challenge, and then we find out that it's a hoax. The world we live in today is producing so much instant access to information. How do we decipher through it all. And not only decipher through it all: how do we take it to make a smart, informed decision. Now what if I told you that there is legitimately a skill in the world that everyone can learn - and not just learn, but get good at - that will empower us to understand data and information better and then to make a data-informed decision. Sound too good to be true. I promise it's not. It is real, and it is accessible to everybody. And this skill is data literacy. Now before I jump in to exactly what data literacy is, I want to set this foundation for us more so we understand the era and the world that we live in with technology and information. Now the time period in which we live has been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Now what in the world does that actually mean. It means a digital world, and I think all of us can agree that we live in a very digital world. In fact, it is very hard-pressed to find people who don't have a computer in their pocket now, in a smartphone. To help paint this picture even better, I'm going to go through a few examples with you just to show you how connected we are and how much information is being produced....