At the dawn of the internet, the way humans find and transfer information was forever changed. Instead of being limited by the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of books and periodicals that a local library had for research on a given topic, we now have the seemingly unlimited caverns of the internet. A quick Google Scholar search of the topic “green technology” brought me approximately 5,100,000 results in 0.06 seconds. Of those results, 81,600 were published since January 1, 2018. Before the dawn of the internet, information on a niche topic such as green technology would have been extremely limited. Finding information on that niche topic with the currency of the last four months would have been nearly impossible. Since looking through pages of pre-sorted information is much more convenient than attempting to find anything useful at the library, humans have turned to the internet as the primary information gathering mechanism.
However, the internet does not have any requirements about factual evidence or scientific review for the information posted. Google Scholar may pull results from reputable scientific sources, but a plain Google search will pull up listings from public forums, company websites, news articles, blogs, and more. The difference between statements supported by tested and well-established facts and statements that have no factual support or mis-represented factual support seems to be impossible to interpret for some humans. This inability to differentiate fact from fiction for humans on the internet may stem from our desire for sensational information or information that follows our current beliefs. We are constantly striving for self-gratification.
In my opinion, one of the greatest dangers of the internet is the spreading of false information. However, in order to maintain our freedom of speech and expression, censorship of false information must be avoided. Censorship effectively put blinders on society to prevent people from hearing any other information than what they are spoon-fed. Even though it may seem foolish or harmful to allow neo-Nazi information to be transferred on the internet, the visibility of it to an average internet user can alert people of controversial and even problematic issues in society. The answer is not to brush painful issues under the rug but to present them and let indivi judge what is “right”.
The solution to reckless trusting of false information is to create a culture among humans of realistic skepticism. If a site or “fact” does not state the original source, it is suspect. If a site or “fact” does state a source, follow the source to make an evaluation of the evidence supporting the “fact”. Humans are capable of critical thinking and understanding fact interpretation. We just need to be more vigilant in using our skills.
Thank you for sharing your post! I also agree that the solution to the spread of misguided or false information is through realistic skepticism. I think it also important to recognize that some areas of the world do not have equitable access to education to foster critical thinking skills. Because of this, I think it is also important hold those who share information publicly accountable.
ReplyDeleteI think your blog is very interesting. I agree it is crazy to think about how information was accessed before Google. I also agree that the ease of false information on the internet can be dangerous. I guess this issue is kind of difficult for me. The measures that we would have to take as a society to prevent harmful or false information from being spread publicly definitely conflicts with our freedom of speech. I wonder if it would even be possible to attempt to educate people enough to avoid this issue?
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