Truth will set you free (John 8:32). The evangelist was referring to the incarnate truth, but this concept is so perfect that it can be applied to the web too.

Problem: truth on the web is often buried and wisdom suffocated under the weight of an enormous amount of information. What to do?

Maybe we can build a minimum method of discernment on a couple of ideas we learned in high school.

• The first “commandment” of Descartes (1596-1650): never to accept anything for true which we did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in our judgment than what was presented to our mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.
• The pars destruens of the method of Bacon (1561-1626) that reminds us to get rid from the four “idols” (tribus, specus, fori and theatri). That is, to deal with the prejudices inherent in our human nature (e. g. a tendency to be deceived by our senses), the bias arising from our education and our habits, the prejudices that depend on the use that we make of our language, and, finally, the biases that arise from following what we have been taught without raising questions.

Late philosophers dealt with these ideas deeper and deeper, but even a minimal use of these insights would be a good start.