Watching YouTube is Not “Doing Your Own Research”

There’s a phrase that keeps coming up in conversations. It could be about climate change, vaccinations, or what shape the Earth actually is. It’s a phrase designed to make the person sound intelligent while simultaneously giving a strange sort of credence to their opinions.

“I’m doing my own research.”

This phrase, and variations of it, are an immediate red flag. You are about to hear some half-baked conspiracy theory backed up by dubious websites, blogs from pretend journalists, and clickbait YouTube videos. The fun part about it? Literally none of it is research.

Bad Facts Lead to Malleable Truth

In this age of easily digestible content that requires no context or education to understand, facts have become a thing of the past. We live in an era when anyone can claim anything with little or no actual information to back it up. I freely admit most of what I write here is my opinion, not fact.

It’s honestly not hard to tell which is which when you stop and think about it.

The problem is that you can find something online to support anything. Even worse, you can create something online to support anything. There’s no longer any need for scientific studies conducted by researchers with multiple advanced degrees published in peer reviewed journals. Not when you have YouTube videos made by crackpots.

Think up any bullshit you want, like peanut butter causes autism in quokkas. You can personally create ten websites and blogs corroborating this, all of which are filled with articles written by you under assumed names referencing an issue that doesn’t exist. You can even make YouTube videos and podcasts about it.

Vaccine protestors doing everything possible to avoid a needle.

Modern society has lost the ability to critically think about pretty much anything. As such, people don’t take the time to ask if something is real or not if it supports their beliefs, opinions, and assumptions. A friend will post one of the blogs to Facebook while another posts a video to TikTok. Suddenly, you have quokka autism fundraisers.

Things Get Real

Okay, the quokka autism thing is kind of funny. Please don’t do it. But this type of misinformation spreads about real problems, such as climate change. People go online, find an unverified “source” that supports their viewpoint and use it to justify their beliefs. This is what “doing your own research” actually is.

A prime example is the proliferation of Flat Earthers. They go online, find a bunch of content created by other Flat Earthers, and use that to prove their point. Except none of it is supported by any legitimate science or research. It’s just Flat Earthers agreeing with each other.

Right now, I can self-publish a book filled with unverified conspiracy theories about the shape of the Earth and put it on Amazon. I can do interviews with podcasts and “YouTube journalists” about it. All of that can then be linked to various Flat Earth websites.

Mike Hughes died in a homemade rocket trying to prove the Earth is flat, which he did not.

The fact that I published a book, got interviewed about it, and was mentioned on some websites means nothing. I can do all of that without being vetted by anyone. Do you think someone checked my credentials before I started a Medium blog-thing that’s mostly about my recovery after my wife left? Hell, no.

Admit You Don’t Know

The real issue is that everyone is afraid to admit what they don’t know. I do not claim to understand the science behind climate change research. But I also know there are people who do, who have gained the education and done the work to be considered authorities on the matter. It trust them.

Scientists who are scientisting.

So much of this “doing my own research” is fueled by ego. There is nothing wrong with admitting you don’t understand something. There’s also nothing wrong with being afraid. Climate Change is scary. So are pandemics like COVID.

As humans, when something scary that we don’t understand is happening, we sometimes find comfort by reaching for a version of the truth we do understand. That doesn’t make it right. Do not lose your critical perspective because you’re too scared and/or arrogant to deal with what’s happening.

There’s a small quokka inside of that big quokka.

Watching YouTube, reading blogs, or watching Fox News is not real research. It can be a good way to gain another perspective on a situation but you also haven’t learned anything from it. If you want facts, find the people doing real research and go from there.