We live in a world in which we're constantly inundated with visual media. What we see has the power to shape how we think, how we feel, how we act, and the decisions we make.

Visual media is created to intentionally elicit certain responses. We often allow visual information to manipulate us, which can have unintended or even harmful consequences.

What assumptions do we make when we see an image? How does our personal worldview impact what we see?

Creating and consuming visual media responsibly can have powerfully beneficial consequences. For example, this map, created by John Snow in the 1850s, illustrates the relationship between contaminated water sources and cases of cholera.

While analysis of the cholera data in its raw form could have led to the conclusion that the Broad Street pump was contaminated, the visualization allows us to much more quickly and easily see the relationship... and take action to solve the problem.

Without visual literacy, we are more subject to manipulation. We can easily fall into the confirmation bias trap, believing what we see if it fits our preconceived notions, even if there is evidence that points to a different truth.

To be an informed consumer of visual information, we must check our responses to visual information and approach it with healthy skepticism and a critical eye. We must question what we see. Visual literacy arms us against manipulation, and allows us to harness the information and utilize it to its best purpose.