Man is by far the most curious living creature on Earth

Goes both ways

Of course there are bloggers and bloggers but there’s also The Times and The National Enquirer.

I’ll rather we all had to learn how to deal with a wide, unstructured, readily available chaos of opinions, than settle for a single, ‘expert’ view.

So, I agree that most people lack the required critical thinking skills to realize that MDR is far more accurate than any site they might stumble upon, but the issue is how they can learn to make that distinction by themselves. Not that easy, is it?

When I spoke of the ‘elite’ withholding information from the masses, I was speaking from an historical perspective – for example, the nobility discouraging the peasants from learning to read so they would not be in a position to challenge the status quo. My point was simply that historically information has been confined to a select few, and now it is available on an massive scale to everyone.

And, yes, I do think that on the whole the ‘old fashioned’ media are a more reliable source of information than unaccountable internet sites. Traditional news corporations have experienced journalists, quality control procedures, accountability structures and a vested interest in maintaining their audience’s trust. I know that they are far from perfect, but I would rather base my own opinion on this than on anonymous bloggers (myself included) writing from their spare room.

By the way, everyone knows most doctors get paid to promote a particular pharmaceutical company’s products. In my mind, it’s not enough reason not to trust their judgment, but I understand why someone would like to look for a second opinion elsewhere. In addition, not all doctors are good doctors.

When my unborn son’s ultrasound showed an ‘abnormally’ large skull, our doctor got us worried. We had to wait for an agonizing weekend, until we could go to a medical center with better equipment and specialists. Well, I just wouldn’t have it! I went online, found three different research papers that disputed the ‘normal’ ranges for the particular measurement and I was convinced that there was nothing wrong. On the day we were to see the specialist, I presented my findings to our doctor and her scorn was unparalleled: ‘ Bah! The internet!’. I was proven correct, of course and had to switch doctors in my wife’s last trimester. Her reaction would be understandable, if she could correctly evaluate my critical thinking skills and my ability to understand paper abstracts. But you can see my point.

Once information was a precious commodity, jealously guarded by the elite who deliberately withheld it from the masses in order to keep them in their place.

Information is simply a resource. By itself it isn’t of much use. Knowledge, on the other hand, is a valuable commodity and is the application of information through skill.

You’re right that today more than ever, we as a society are inundated by information. The majority of people can’t efficiently filter all of this information to their benefit because they may lack specialized education, skill, or both to interpret this over-abundance of info. This is why WebMD and its ilk will never replace a good old physician or pharmacist.

By the way, this doesn’t mean that the “elite” are jealously “withholding” knowledge from the public. After all, if everyone understood medicine perfectly we’d all be medical professionals with Harvard degrees.

Also, the fact that Wikipedia has misleading information doesn’t nullify its utility. You aren’t supposed to take any source of information at face value, not the medical text (although they are usually much more rigorous), not the old media, and not Wikipedia. You need to be able validate information on your own, media of any form just points you in a direction and if they can’t back up information with sources then it shouldn’t be believed. In order to use Wikipedia effectively you just need to look for sources and think critically, it might take some getting used to, but it’s easy enough.

If there is a problem here it’s that people are actively discouraged from thinking critically, not media.