This is absolutely necessary for anyone born before ~1985. I have so many “random facts” memorized from pre-internet days, and many of them have turned out to be half-right hearsay or straight up incorrect when faced with fact-checking.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'd argue that the internet has made this problem worse, not better.

In fact, I'd argue that the internet has taken away tons of people's ability to admit they're wrong because there's always an echo chamber that will support you on even the dumbest of beliefs and anyone fact checking anyone is seen as the enemy. You see this on places like Facebook and YouTube comments where someone will make a claim, other people will think it makes sense on a cursory glance and express their agreement, then someone who actually knows what they're talking about will politely correct them and everyone will gang up on them because they've disrupted the vibe, and simply because of that the unanimous decision is made that the correct answer is in fact wrong and is a government conspiracy.

load more comments (7 replies)