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The internet has become nearly impossible to use for information. (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I need to write a zoology paper on bugs

All search results are for pest control businesses or are AI generated garbage that have wrong information.

Yes, the internet always had problems, but I cannot stress how much worse it has gotten for information over the last ten years.

I used to be able to search a species and get scientific papers or at least articles that referenced scientific papers in the results. None of that anymore. All search results are for someone trying to sell you something, and articles are regurgitated AI monstrosities that waffle on with no real information and no references. If your search even manages to direct you to news articles every news site will have identical, poorly written tabloid hidden behind a paywall. All of it useless for even the most basic academic research.

I literally can't do my job if every search result for species identification is behind a paywall, or an AI generated image of a bug that doesn't really exist.

It's no longer the information age. But not because of Trumpism and other things liberal whine about, it's because capitalism has hollowed out the internet into a husk of what it was meant to be.

I literally had to go and buy an expensive field guide from a museum to finish this paper. I haven't had to do that before.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I really hate to say this but AI has made my searching go back to useable and rarely better than search results have ever been

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I used to think the data hoarders were paranoid. Now, not so much.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

The top page is mostly ads. If I look up anything you know the top results will be some company I don’t know or care about. The other day the AI knew more what I was talking about than the search results, but without further links to click it was useless.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

biologist here - I hear what you're saying, but this information has really never been very available online bc people who go outside and catch bugs are not chronically online. The best botany guides are all locally published books

that being said ... some resources:

bugGuide.net

iNaturalist forums - seriously, ask a question, ask for resources, experts such as nerdy self taught naturalists, college professors, and field workers will be chiming in

But yeah this isn't an "anymore" issue for biology in particular. Good keys are just not available online. The production of keys is not a commercially viable product, so the people who write them don't tend to make ebooks and such available so they can be sure they get paid via purchase of their books. Given the status of biology funding, I support this model in our current conditions. My local flora was funded by a local native plant society, written by (expert) retirees. I do believe they deserve compensation for their work, and it shouldn't be though individual sales of books but at this point it is, so you can support them by checking out/requesting resources from your local library or buying the books (which you did). Welcome to biology.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Thank you for the resources 👍

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