Knowledge is neutral until it is exercised into belief, action or behavior. Benjamin Franklin reportedly said, “Knowledge is a great investment.”
This distinctly human process is cumulative. A hundred billion neurons in our brain keep us up to date. What goes where in my grey matter, I don’t know? I want to make good decisions, focus on what’s most important, and be observant and discerning.
Remember how as children we got preached to about having “good study habits? The common household voice said, “Is your homework done”? As adults we have to make this choice everyday. It is a unique process for each family and individual. We are overwhelmed with information. The Internet provides and the Internet divides. What I NEED is quite different from what I WANT? The former is thoughtful, while the latter likely culturally programmed, and subconsciously and ego driven. I’m not a psychologist, but I want to get a handle on this issue. The phrase Less is More haunts me. Less data, more facts.
My writing mission is to encourage readers to explore those subjects they connect most deeply with. I drop fishing lures into water. Maybe a reader takes a tour of Google’s search engine on a subject of interest. This opens a virtual flood of commercial messages, special interest group’s and governmental studies, academic papers and lectures, and more links than we can possibly consider. Sharing my personal search behavior and choices are likely the price I pay for their service.
Surfing the web without a plan is not likely to be efficient, or uncover facts and evidence. Most search engine algorithms feed us its bias to support paid advertisers. We rationally understand this. We have interests and questions. A normal reaction is “I don’t know”, but I’ll check it out online. That puts the onus on having a fact-finding process. Here’s what I learned about doing more effective Internet research. If I can maintain more privacy in my searches maybe I’d get less spam? First, decide on the specific terms to use for the query, and secondly, understand the search engine choices we have.
Brooklyn College Professor Eric Popkoff advises us to get our search terms as concise as possible. If too broad, we’ll not get the specific answer we want. He illustrates with terms like “oil prices in the United States.” Using nouns and pronouns offers the most specific results.
There are many search engines we can choose. Our browser usually has one as the default it opens up and is ready for our query. I want less biased search engines and more privacy on my interests. Here are 6 options to try on your own. There’s more to discover on your own.
- BING: Microsoft made this tool good for video searches as it excludes the YouTube bias.
- OneSearch: This Verizon Media tool presents itself as unbiased and without cookies.
- DuckDuckGo: Here browsing is promised as totally private.
- Andex: Popular among Central & Eastern European countries.
- SearchEncrypt: For privacy query search terms expire in 30 minutes.
- Beaucoup.com: By topical categories has over 2,500 search engines
Use more than one search engine and keep track of your results.
I have no connection to any of the above, nor do I vouch for their policies and promises. Search engines get sold and absorbed under the same or new brand name…homework is important when you want to get to reliable information sources. Nothing is permanent so stay alert to changes.
Knowing the “source” of information is critical. Who sponsors the website? Where was it first published? Is the author(s) identified? Do they reveal who paid for the study? Is there link to author’s credentials?
Is the site dated/current? Do positions espoused include evidence?
Would this source or author have a political or financial motive? Benefit financially, directly or through hits on the story? If the writing seems exploitive, illogical and very negative or critical, good reason to do more checking…there are always two sides to every story!
Objective, reliable, and accurate information is becoming more challenging to find. Fake news accelerated beyond most companies abilities to ferret out using their technical fixes and some human intervention. Social media, free speech, privacy, censorship, posting anonymously, profit incentives, and competing global conflicts, for example, make unverified information probably here to stay. A highly motivated falsifier of information almost always can circumvent rules and controls.
Maintaining an open mind is not easy. Beliefs are deeply engrained. Think hard and critically about findings on the Internet.
Albert Einstein commented that, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
I like to think of Internet research as actually going somewhere. The good news; “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness,” according to the words of author Mark Twain.
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