The Tutors' Top 10 Netflix TV Shows

With the increased amount of time all of us are spending at home, many of us are also spending more time watching our favorite shows on our various streaming services. If you're perhaps looking for some new shows to binge, we have compiled a list of the top 10 TV shows that our tutors are currently watching and enjoying on Netflix.

Have a new show that you're enjoying? Leave it as a recommendation on our Submit a Rec page, and we'll share it with your fellow JTCC students!

It’s a wild, wild world out there in the news right now. Between the modern 24-hour news cycle, viral spread of news on social media, clickbait, and the rapidly developing and unprecedented coronavirus situation, it can be difficult, time-consuming, and stressful to parse out what news is worth paying attention to. Unfortunately, we are all vulnerable to viral and fake news updates, so fact-checking is a good tool to have ready to go.

We hope this handy little guide will help ease the pressure of all those factors in your daily news consumption, so you can rest assured you have the most vital and accurate information on the outside world while you get back to your newly established social distancing routine.

Get Your Thinking Cap On

The first important thing to remember about engaging with news or media of any kind is that it is an interaction: the author brings whatever they have to say, and you roll up with your critical thinking skills in tow and ready to deploy. While it might be tempting, especially in busy or overwhelming times, to simply sit back and absorb whatever new information comes your way, in the long run this can lead to unnecessary confusion. Treating news as something to investigate and interact with rather than consume is more important than any specific questions or list.

The good news is, the human brain is built for critical thinking! Remember all those annoying questions you asked your parents as a child? Now is the time for that flood of questions. Why? Who says? What makes them the boss? Prove it!

Here are some quick tips on questions to keep in mind when you’re reading an article, blog post, or text from your roommate about what they heard from their cousin:

Where does this come from? A news publication, a personal post, a viral post, a forum board, a blog?

If you don’t know, a quick Google search might be in order. If you can’t find out, chances are it’s developed somewhere along the grapevine and isn’t important enough for you to worry yourself with.

What is that source’s reputation or background? Does it have a particular bias? (If you’re not sure, this chart can help you out.) Is it known for being reliable?

Even if your nugget of precious new info does have a source you can locate, poke that source with a stick for a minute. Who runs it? Are their goals to disseminate the most important information or just to get as many new views or clicks as possible?

When we see new information, especially in a time such as this when no one seems to know what’s going on, smaller stories and worries that we might usually dismiss become much more appealing to latch on to.

Just remember, you’re not out of the loop or behind if you’re confused and overwhelmed. We’re all on a learning curve together, and there’s nothing wrong with feeling out of your depth at the moment.

What is the tone of the quote, piece, etc.?

Tone can help us both to differentiate between real news and clickbait, fearmongering, or just plain trolling, and to limit our news intake to that which will be most helpful for us personally.

If constantly reading emotional or fearful words about dire situations is making you more stressed and depressed than anything else, it’s not serving its purpose to mobilize the most effective action (or lack thereof, since most of us are staying home and laying low).

If you feel more like spiraling than like you’re calm and in control, try switching to a more neutral or even optimistically toned news source. While denial and unsubstantiated claims of solutions are definitely harmful, there’s nothing wrong with tracking the smaller ways we can help and take action—try sticking to more local news about what your community is doing and needs help with.

Alternatively, if the tone of the news you come across seems all over the place, or stubbornly positive despite what you see in the world around you, try hitting up a reputable fact-checking source like Snopes, or sticking to more scientific or pragmatic sources like health organizations.

Where is the evidence?

Especially right now, with widespread chaos and less-than-ideal organized measurement and monitoring of everything going on in the world, testimonials and unsubstantiated claims abound.

Remember to take a minute to check for evidence like statistics, or quotes from reputable experts or organizations. If news does take the form of a personal story or testimonial, make sure it’s coming from a person who has experience with what they’re talking about. You wouldn’t trust a mountain goat with what the weather is in the jungle—the same rules apply here.

Here is an expanded list of fact-checking questions to keep on hand about reliability, bias, and sources.

Here is a research guide that addresses timeliness, relevance, and how to spot a suspect URL.

Limits, Limits, Limits

Finally, the best advice I can give you on navigating the choppy waters of news and updates right now is to develop a personal approach to the news that works for you and stick to it.

For most of us, that probably looks like choosing a few trusted news sources and checking them at a specified time or with a daily or weekly quota. If you’re on the front lines in a certain field, or following a specific situation, that might look like checking one or two specific sources as updates come in.

The key here is to limit an overwhelming and unhelpful flood of information, which can cause us to feel stressed, helpless, desensitized, or just plain tired. If you find unsolicited information encroaching upon you in your regular activity, like on your social media feeds or through friends and family, don’t hesitate to take a step back and say: “This isn’t helping me right now. I will check on this later, through a source I trust.”

Good luck to all you folks out there foraging for vital information in these trying times! We will get through this together, with our wits and intellects intact.

Handy Dandy List of News Sources

Here’s an easy reminder of what sources to start with when developing a stress-limiting news intake routine (and what sources to probably avoid).

These publications are generally our friends:

• The CDC

• The World Health Organization

• Local news such as the Richmond-Times Dispatch

• Snopes, a fact checking report site that will give you the low-down on whether that sound bite you heard on the gas pump TV is something to be worried about or not

• Librarians (at either your local or university library) and professors; if you want help with everyday research, go to the experts!

These sources are at best, hasty (and require further questioning), and at worst, fleecing us for clicks:

• Gossip and tabloid-style periodicals like Daily Mail or the New York Post

• Links on social media

• Facebook or blog posts, Twitter or Reddit threads, etc.

• Unsourced updates through word of mouth

Remember, it’s not bad to diversify where you get your news from, so long as you make sure all your sources are reputable and trustworthy! Checking with multiple, different style sources can be a great way to make sure something is trustworthy and noteworthy news and not being misinterpreted, blown out of proportion, or minimized.

Welcome!

Hello everyone! My name is Noelle Fuller, and I am the Assistant Coordinator of the Academic Resource Center, or the ARC, as most know it. I'm very excited to introduce you to our new blog, the ARC Tutor Blog. This will be a creative content space where the tutors will share all kinds of things with you, from personal stories, to academic content, to recommendations and more. Our tutors are Trailblazers, just like you, and they are here to help you through your journey at Tyler in whatever way they can. We are hoping that this space will promote connection between John Tyler students as you follow our tutors' posts, especially in this time of disconnect and isolation.

Please be on the lookout for future posts from our tutors in the coming days. In the meantime, we all need to be doing what we can to bolster our spirits, and bring a little joy into some of the bleakness. I don't know about you all, but something that always makes me smile are very cute animals. So, in the vein of cute animals, please enjoy this video of red pandas playing in the snow: