The internet has largely obliterated intelligent discussion of opposing viewpoints – even as it intentionally drives wedges to further divide opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
People involved in online arguments are always urging each other to “do your own research”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
This cracks me up every time for at least three reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n
First, are we really going to pretend that you can trust the information you read on the internet? Seems obvious to me that it’s impossible for the layman to know which sources are credible and which are not.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Second, every “fact” posted online has also been “debunked” somewhere online. The question then becomes “But has the debunk also been debunked?”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Third, even if you found reliable sources, there’s no guarantee that you know how to interpret the data. Two people can look at the same data set and come to very different conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n
(As a succinct example, there’s the clever quip you might have seen online before: “99% of the things I worry about never come to pass. Undeniable proof that worrying works!”)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
When I see someone urging others to “do their own research”, I know that person exists in an intellectual bubble, smugly secure in the knowledge that he has it all figured out.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In the age of the internet, how do we bring back critical thinking skills and a bit of epistemic humility?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The internet has largely obliterated intelligent discussion of opposing viewpoints – even as it intentionally drives wedges to further divide opinions.\u00a0 People involved in online arguments are always urging each other to “do your own research”.\u00a0 This cracks me up every time for at least three reasons. First, are we really going to pretend that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6007,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006\/revisions\/6007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}