There has been a lot of trash talk lately about people making up their minds by researching on the Internet. There’s nothing wrong with doing research on the internet. But think where your information is coming from, and how it might affect you.
Something We All Know
If you get an email from a lawyer in Nigeria, what do you do? I sincerely hope you trash it, without opening the document if possible. How do we know to do this? Because it is unsolicited communication from a suspect source. Most of us are even careful about messages from our bank, credit card or other reputable company. If you get a message from one of those organizations and it invites you to click a hot link, do you click it? I hope not, because then you are allowing yourself to be taken to a site sent to you by an unknown person. If you suspect it might be legit, you search the organization yourself, and ask, “Do you have a question for me?” Usually they don’t, and they want you to report the phishing to their security department.
Apply This Wisdom to Social Media
But do we do the same with other information? When you go on social media, it’s just like your email. Everyone out there is trying to sell you their ideas. So you get posts like I got today, “Arkansas police arrest black schoolgirls.”
Stop and think. How different is this from that lawyer in Africa? It’s a message from someone you don’t know with a tempting offer that’s hard to refuse. You don’t think it costs anything to hit on that clickbait, but the effect is insidious.
You have to ask yourself, “Is the source reliable?” Since it’s on social media, it’s got two strikes against it already. “Is it true?” Probably, to some degree, but with a whole lot of spin added. “Who benefits?” Remember, on social media, your attention is the product being sold. Some advertiser is getting to you with this heart-wrenching story.
Your email program has a “Trash” box that you sling unwanted communications into. Perhaps your social media app should have the same function.
When it comes to any research, there is a sliding scale of reliability that we need to be aware of:
Lab Research
This, of course, is real research. Findings can be trusted to be as close to fact as modern science can make them. The interpretation and communication of those facts, however, must be taken with a grain of salt. Tobacco company “research” into lung cancer, for example.
Statistical Research
This information comes from statisticians who review all the scientific findings on a topic and publish the results. They are researching and interpreting the research. Once again, this search is done on scientific principles, but more bias creeps in. A variety of sources can easily determine different outcomes.
An example: a compiler looked at all the research on diseases of people who lived near high-tension power lines in Sweden. The data showed a four times larger number of cancer sufferers than in the general population. What the interpretation forgot to mention was that if you test a large enough body of data, there is a statistical probability that one or two of the facts will be out of line, simply because you searched so much data. However, now we have the internet myth that “scientific research proved” that power lines cause cancer. And by extrapolation, so do electrical meters, headphones, cell phones, Bluetooth devices and, for all I know, your electric toothbrush. NO! I just made that up. Pleeeease…oh, well, there goes another one.
Internet Research
This is how most people get their information. You want to find out about Welsh Rarebit, you Google it and follow whatever rabbit hole Larry Paige and Sergei Brin choose to drop you into. The benefit of this method is that you went looking for this information, so you have some control over the sources. Outside the Facebook algorithms, you have not been targeted. Even when you scan the first hits of the search, you should be analyzing the sources critically. Start recognizing the clues that tell you what kind of publication you’re looking at.
Social Media “Research”
As the pundits point out, this is not research at all. You are opening your life to be bombarded by opinions, and in that kind of situation, people tend to choose “data” that confirms opinions they already hold. Worse than that, media platforms are registering what sources you search and sending you more of the same. Beware: an innocent rabbit hole can become a deep, dark well with a Snark at the bottom.
The Bottom Line
When you go online to get information, you are revealing to the world one of your most precious assets: your opinion. If you aren’t careful, you will pay dearly for the neglect. Some anti-vaxxers have even paid with their lives.