I love the Internet. I love Google. I use both (and other search engines) many, many, many times a day. I can’t believe I use to be able to live without them. However, I realize that much, if not most, of the information found in the wonders of online is not accurate. Sometimes the information is off by a couple non-critical points, sometimes it is a complete and utter falsehood, and sometimes is falls somewhere in between. What drives me absolutely crazy is people believing anything and everything they see online, especially when it confirms something they already believe. You can ask almost anyone and they will tell you they know this. That they are aware of the information they are looking at. That they search smartly. Bull. Not a day goes by that I don’t see something in my email, on facebook, on twitter, or hear in a conversation, that is a piece of false or misguided information gathered from online and proudly displayed as news. Is it really so difficult to think “geeze that sounds interesting, I wonder if it is true” and then do a simple 2-min search to see if it is? Especially when there are sites (such as snopes.com) that will do the in-dept searching for you? Why is this so difficult?
I understand it is tempting to go with information that supports your life views, or even information that is fun or interesting, but are people really happy believing whatever they want to, and ignoring everything else? Is ignorance really bliss? I get excited when I see something online that I find exciting, or helpful, or that I can add to my collection of things that prove I am right. In fact I get so excited I immediately spend the next couple minuetes of my life trying to find more corroborating information and trying to confirm that the information is correct. I want it to be right. I want to be able to tell everyone I know about it. I guess what I am not understanding is why people would be so excited to share information that isn’t true? Do they really fool themselves into thinking it is true? Or think that “it is just for fun” and no one really cares if it is accurate? Has our society really got to the point that no one realizes, or cares about, the power of information? I don’t get it!
It frustrates me, it concerns me, and overall it makes me sad.
Now, for the funny part. This is what started this whole rant:
I was thinking “hmmmm, that is cool. Although… I don’t think I would be able to bust out my password backwards with a gun aimed at me… in fact it is taking me a second to do it right now sitting on the couch. It would be cool if this was true though, I’ll see if snopes has any info.” About 2.7 seconds later I was reading how this could not possibly be true. Sigh. I saw this on facebook. As of now this has been shared 634 times. Although most of the comments I saw (I just skimmed the first bunch) say how good this is to know, there are a few people who point out its falsehood. Those people give me hope. Follow their example. Especially when it is something you want to believe. The only way to grow is to learn, and the only way to learn is to think beyond what we know and believe. Also, if you don’t do this and continue to share these uninformed falsehoods with me, I’ll add you to those in my “skip-inbox” (aka ignore/block) list.


















