What is critical thinking?

What is critical thinking to me? This is a question I think critically on. To me thinking critically is the ability to analyze and evaluate something. I also believe it to be personal. I use the ability to think critically in all aspects of my life. Sometimes I am known to think too critically in situations. To me thinking critically means to think with reason, to be able not just to react but also to be able to rationalize your reactions. Critical thinking is controlled by one's own self. You decide how you think. You need to take time and be sensible when you think critically.


When I think critically about anything I look over all other meaning, purposes, and reasons. I try to not just assume that my first thought is the correct or right one. My personal habits when it comes to thinking critically are that I have to write everything down. I need to be able to visualize it. I believe that critical thinking equals analyzing.

I analyze almost every aspect of my life. I analyze work, music, books, and my emotions. I always am trying to figure out why things are the way they are. I for one do not analyze politics. I have never found interest in them and think that there are so many lies that I would not even know where to start with them.

I almost always analyze the media. The media is a fascinating thing to analyze. There are so many problems with our media that you can find yourself in an overload of information. The media is also so influential. I find that being because we as humans do not think critically on what the media is really saying we just take it in and automatically accept it. If we would analyze more what they say we would not be as influenced as we are now.

When it comes to academic work it goes both ways for me. Most of the time I think critically on my work but sometimes I am lazy and I do not think critically. I find that usually when I take an assignment I find out all directions and then I figure out what the assignment is about. I will try to pin point some point of interest to help me become enthusiastic about it. I will then typically form a thought out plan and then start the assignment. Other times I will just meet the requirements and call it good, and put absolutely no thought into it at all. At the moment I am taking ballroom dancing. My instructor has told me that I am thinking too critically about what I am doing and that I need to just relax and let it happen. Sometimes things are simple where you do not need to think critically.

In conclusion, I am hoping that by the end of this class I will have a better understanding of critical thinking in general. I also hope to learn other method to think critically and analyze situations.