Where do we find reliable information?I’m asking this question on an internet-based medium, which itself is ironic.While spending time with some younger people, it’s become clear that the web is their source of truth.You find purveyors of information that you trust, and you accept their YouTube channels as representing correct data.This can be a disorienting experience for an old doubter like me.One of the reasons for studying for a Ph.D., apart from the vain hope of finding a career in higher education, is to hone critical thinking skills.When I went through the process, that involved reading lots and lots of print material, assessing it, and weighing it against alternative views, also in print format.You learn who really makes sense and you judge which publishers have good information more frequently.As you navigate, you do so critically, questioning where they get their information.
Now, I’m not one of those people who think the younger generation is wrong (in fact, there are YouTube educational videos about just that).The situation does, however, leave me wondering about how to fact-check when you don’t know the publisher.It may be an older person’s problem, but it’s essentially the same dilemma behind self-publishing—the reason you trust a self-published book depends on the author alone.Is s/he persuasive?Did s/he document the sources of her/his information?Are those sources good ones?The young people I know seem quite adept at filtering out obviously biased information.Many YouTube personalities footnote their presentations with links to sources (many of them online), and after an hour of watching I’m left questioning what’s really real at all.
You see, many of these internet personalities have sponsors.Sponsors bring money, and money biases anyone’s angle toward the truth.In fact, many of these YouTube sources call out the lobbying groups that influence public opinion for political ends.Only someone completely naive—no matter their generation—would not acknowledge that government runs on money provided by corporations with interests to be protected.There have been reliable sources, even from the days of print, that prove beyond any reasonable doubt just how corrupt governments tend to be.But who has time to fact-check the government when the rest of the information we receive is suspect?Those of us with training in advanced critical thinking aren’t immune from biased information.It’s just that there’s so much data on the web that my head’s spinning.I think I need to go read a book.
