this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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You would consult the ancient technology of books. And there were these people who's sole job was to direct you towards the books that contained the information you needed.
There were these huge buildings just filled to the brim with different types of books.
Just because the internet has a huge quantity of information doesn't mean the quality has increased.
It boggles my mind how younger people think we lived in some kind of dark-age before google.
Not only did books exist, but they could give you an in-depth answer that could be trusted.
And yes, when the internet was made public, I loved being able to find answers more quickly, but I didn't just walk around with empty space between my ears
If anything, I feel like people are more gullible and believe more falsehoods than they did when I was a teen
(That said... there is plenty of information that's been updated, and plenty of stupid shit that went around- like the falsehood that we only have five senses, or that we only use 10% of our brains)
I had a teacher in high school tell us that glass is an incredibly slow moving liquid, and that's why on really old buildings the glass is thicker at the bottom, because it has flowed and "pooled" like that.
I believed that for a good number of years and even repeated it a few times before finding out that no, it's not, and the reason some old glass is like that is simply because of the manufacturing process at the time, and that it was simply installed thick side down for aesthetic reasons, and that you can actually find old glass that is thicker at the side or top because it was installed differently.
I remember that one! What about how people thought we could only taste certain flavors with specific parts of our tongues.
That one really confused me as a kid
The taste bud thing is even worse. There are zones of buds which specialize in certain tastes, but they are scattered around the whole tongue. The brain know their pattern and recognize them as you are tasting something.
Thought Emporium made a video about faking taste and between 5-11 he explains in depth.
Don't get me started on the 5% of our brains thing. Utter bullshit. There's no way I'm reaching even close to that number.
Thanks for the giggle :)
I used to touch things like salty stuff to different parts of my tongue and get confused about why I could taste them everywhere and wondered if there was something wrong with my tongue.
Same!
When teachers didn’t know the answer to a question, they would just make some stupid shit up.
Which ironically I guess is just what AI does.
It's actually on this list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions
Fun article
I think the gullability of humans have been constant throughout our history. The difference now is that everyone has a way to broadcast their stupidity easier now than before.
Fair. Misinformation spreads like wildfire now
I was there before Internet and I do think libraries are dark ages compared to Internet
And people always blindly trusted books and scientific articles. Including that one article that says that vaccines causes autism.
People were and are gullible. What changes is for efficiently being able to tailor lies to specific groups.
Yeah.
I definitely blindly trusted books and articles as a teen. I feel like standards for publications were higher, though. I suppose it depends on sources. I also had the advantage of being the youngest member of my family, with two older brothers who were both interested in science (in one way or another) and I went to private school as a younin' with a gap of terrible public school, and then a decent snooty high (also public). What I mean with all that is that my experiences may not be the norm, and for some people the internet may have opened even more doors
Also, to be fair, I was a gullible teen and young adult as well. I've always questioned things, but I did carry plenty of false beliefs (hell, I probably still do!)
I tend to forget that, sometimes
Why are you guys acting like books no longer exist? Libraries are full of them. And kids still go to them.