So Much Information Everywhere, Yet..

[bullet08]

Why are people asking stupid questions all over the internet? Yes, there are stupid questions. If a person is too lazy to look up an information that takes less than 5 minutes to find, that's a stupid question more due to the lazy person asking the question than the question itself.

I get it. Back when everything was written down on paper, it would be easier asking someone who knows more than you. Now with internet, it takes less than a minute to find almost everything. And it's rather easy to tell which answers are BS. Yet, people are asking stupid questions and wait for a trivial answer for days.

I really don't have any idea why people are doing this. Only thing I can think of is possibility of some sort of social interaction. But if that's the case, why not go to a bar. pub, watering hole? Barkeep will listen to anyone!

 

[warren]

Information and misinformation on the interweb. Due diligence isn't what many folks do. Ask a question and accept the answer without question.

 

[JoeW]

Many or most people would rather be told what to think, rather than find answers and think for themselves. Thinking for oneself is too much effort, apparently.

 

[BingBong]

We all do it occasionally, some make a profession of it. In a working environment, I would frequently redirect people to a search engine when they had a PC right in front of them; some people lack gumption and that's how it is.

 

[ziv]

Is this thread one of them stupid questions?

 

[Chris T]

I've come to realize that a lot of people actually can't read well. I don't mean a large number of people, I mean a large percentage of the whole. And a lot of people with high school diplomas, and some with education past that. Illiteracy might have something to do with it, not just laziness.

But also it might be that some questions aren't really requests for information, they're invitations to social interaction. I'm bad at reading those social cues myself...

Wait, was this one of those?

 

[spearheadbill]

Is this thread one of them stupid questions?

No.

 

[spearheadbill]

Most times if they simply copied and pasted their query into the search bar exactly as they wrote in the original question all of these magical answers would just appear in their phone or computer.

 

[lraisch]

I'm going to be generous here. As Warren points out, there is both information and disinformation on the net. There is also AI, which frequently doesn't know what it's talking about, because like the questioner it gets misled by inaccurate data.

If I want information related to pipe smoking, isn't it better to ask a community with some actual experience with the subject?

Unless we're talking about brand vs. briar or cake vs. no cake, then all bets are off!

 

[Alejo R.]

If I want information related to pipe smoking, isn't it better to ask a community with some actual experience with the subject?

Internet communities often have a small group of opinion leaders and a large majority who simply repeat what they’ve learned—correctly or not—from those leaders, usually with little real-world experience in the subject they’re discussing. Sometimes one of those repeaters ends up becoming an opinion leader just by staying active and participating over a long period. In this way, certain ideas are repeated again and again until they become distorted.

 

[Briarcutter]

certain ideas are repeated again and again until they become distorted.

And believed!

 

[warren]

And a lot of people with high school diplomas, and some with education past that. Illiteracy might have something to do with it, not just laziness.

That and never having been taught "critical thinking."

 

[Waning Embers]

Is this thread one of them stupid questions?

Well, if you have to ask......

 

[Waning Embers]

Why are people asking stupid questions all over the internet? Yes, there are stupid questions. If a person is too lazy to look up an information that takes less than 5 minutes to find, that's a stupid question more due to the lazy person asking the question than the question itself.

Then you'd no longer have forums.

But if that's the case, why not go to a bar. pub, watering hole? Barkeep will listen to anyone!

Some don't like physically being around others.

 

[mortonbriar]

Some don't like physically being around others.

I nearly always use up/over extend my own tolerances for daily social interaction on the three lovely family members I share a home with...I will go to a bar if it is an invitation that I cannot figure out a polite way of turning down, but NEVER of my own volition...so about once a year.

 

[didimauw]

I nearly always use up/over extend my own tolerances for daily social interaction on the three lovely family members I share a home with...I will go to a bar if it is an invitation that I cannot figure out a polite way of turning down, but NEVER of my own volition...so about once a year.

So far in all honesty, this is the best part of being divorced as an introvert. I like being home. And have always enjoyed silence being alone.

 

[hobie1dog]

2 Quotes:

1. We all believe things that are wrong.
3. We are all ignorant, only on different subjects.

 

[Waning Embers]

I cannot figure out a polite way of turning down,

Tell them you have chronic IBS.

 

[Scottmi]

Why are people asking stupid questions all over the internet? Yes, there are stupid questions. If a person is too lazy to look up an information that takes less than 5 minutes to find, that's a stupid question more due to the lazy person asking the question than the question itself.

I get it. Back when everything was written down on paper, it would be easier asking someone who knows more than you. Now with internet, it takes less than a minute to find almost everything. And it's rather easy to tell which answers are BS. Yet, people are asking stupid questions and wait for a trivial answer for days.

I really don't have any idea why people are doing this. Only thing I can think of is possibility of some sort of social interaction. But if that's the case, why not go to a bar. pub, watering hole? Barkeep will listen to anyone!

Not all of us grew up with the internet at our fingertips, and even though we are on it now, most? of us still have our early habits of asking within our communities for the wisdom that others we have some connection with may have. That's my take, anyhow.

Like a fair few of us here, I'm old enough to have learned to program with the TRS-80, Commodore, and Apple ][ computers and VisiCalc and WordPerfect being my early-teen introductions to the computer age. I feel blessed to have experienced this amazing transition (i grok* DOS and TCP/IP and basic computer functioning AND problems at a level my kids are unlikely ever to need to know) and certainly was in the right place at the right time career-wise. Yet I am two feet in the old world, head in the "new world," and that "new world" is aging out fast as tech runs inexorably forward and ever faster. Sometimes i ask the all-knowing internet for answers, and sometimes I ask my community. I hope that never becomes a "failing"..!

*i even remember the world before/the origin of the word 'grok'! LOL!

 

[Scottmi]

So far in all honesty, this is the best part of being divorced as an introvert. I like being home. And have always enjoyed silence being alone.

I tell people I live where I do to "develop my inner hermit."