It's funny - almost as much stuff was knowable, but we couldn't be bothered to get the info. I mentioned in a different thread recently that, today, if you're with a group of friends and someone asks what a platypus eats, someone will whip out their phone and answer in 30 seconds. When I was a teen in that same situation, we for sure could have ridden our bikes to the library to find out, but a question like that just wasn't important enough. If someone suggested going to the library to look it up, we'd laugh at them. There were gobs of things like this that, if no one in the group knew the answer, we'd just shrug and move on.
They eat worms, larvae, shrimp, and crayfish, by the way.
I'd say 9/10 times when someone looks something up that we wouldn't have gone out of our way to find out, that info is instantly lost anyway. I'm way more likely to remember something if I have to go hunt down the info, either at a library or something really obscure that takes work to find online
That's my superpower, I remember that shit. It'll occasionally come up in conversation where suddenly I look like a genius about some obscure topic and everybody asks "how the fuck do you know that" and all I can say is "see... I looked it up once 4 years ago..."
the best part about that is that everyone would start discussing the actual answer for dozens of minutes, without reaching any conclusion or the one that looks more fun
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 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.
but there are also misconceptions that the internet also teaches us. For example, we are taught that planes fly by using Bernoulli's law, that is, the shape of the wing causes lift to be generated. I can confidently say, after years of studying in aeronautical sciences at university, that the real reason planes fly is magic.
False! My mother bought us an encyclopedia set, and I read that shit cover to cover, A-Z! We also had these things called schools, and these big buildings called libraries.
Encyclopedias exited, and if you wanted to know the population of Greece they were perfect. But, they were terrible for answering random questions like "Why is the sky blue?" The answer was almost certainly in the encyclopedia, but you'd have to know to look up "Raleigh Scattering", and how would you know that?
What makes modern web searching so good is that it's amazing at surfacing answers to just about any question. Whether the answer it brings up is true is another matter...
The section about the sky would mention it, so then you go to the index in the R book, find the entry for that phenomenon, and read about Raleigh Scattering. The internet is definitely easier for finding random information though, although it's harder now than it was like 10 years ago. ChatGPT is amazing for finding random information, but you have to verify what it tells you, since it will just randomly lie for no reason.
But, they were terrible for answering random questions like "Why is the sky blue?" The answer was almost certainly in the encyclopedia, but you'd have to know to look up "Raleigh Scattering", and how would you know that?
Then you would ask the librarian!!! They would be able to help you find the answer or where to start!
And will help you with your research a bit too, in my experience. If you have questions or something. Librarians are super cool and an awesome resource we shouldn't let fade away.
But yeah I fucking love being able to look up any random question that pops in my head. The image post is like, my actual nightmare I can't stand being misinformed, but ignorance is fine.
Yup. Now we (probably often myself included) rather "learn" from some low effort shitpost than getting distracted by that highly researched encyclopedia set.
We were much better at retaining information too. It wasn't available at the tip of your fingers, so we put effort into remembering it. Nowadays I don't remember anything except for old movie quotes, and stuff pertinent to work. I think the constant influx of information we experience now is interpreted by the mind as noise, and it goes in one eyeball and out the other.
Teacher should have shown you how a number line extends forever in both directions (no reason to think she should have known about imaginary numbers making it extend orthogonally as well)
I find this idea genuinely terrifying. Having seen lots of factual information, you start to see where things logically fit in and you're able to deduce so much more new information, but you're also just able to tell when aunt Marge is spitting straight horseshit again.
Now imagine growing up in e.g. a creationist household, maybe even home-schooled, where you're told things just are a certain way, even though it makes absolutely no fucking sense. At no point, you start to see logical patterns. At no point, you develop an intuition for new information. And if someone bullshits you, your only 'defense' is whether you trust them on a personal level, meaning aunt Marge's horseshit is to be considered unquestionably correct. What a dismal and vulnerable position to be in.
I had a set of encyclopedias before the internet... They were 20 years older than me though and it wasn't until I was at least 10 or so probably before I started consulting them for school... Lol
Yep. I was in elementary school in the 80s, so, of course, all of their encyclopedias were from the early 70s and had all kinds of out-of-date information.
Wikipedia may be untrustworthy at times, but at least they try to keep things up to date if there's a major change- like a country no longer exists- the encyclopedias and our globe both showed Vietnam as a divided country.
I'm in Indiana and have a 13-year-old daughter. You'd be surprised how much misinformation is taught in public schools now. Not just the abstinence-only sex education bullshit and the same old lies about drugs, but just getting basic history wrong because that history makes America look bad. I do my best to educate her on all of these and other subjects where school has failed her, but I have no experience in pedagogy, so it's an uphill battle.
She did enjoy coming home every day to tell me new lies the anti-drug program in her health class told her so I would correct them.
I mean, some houses had encyclopedias before this as well. The problem with those is they got outdated quickly for anything current and near past and were expensive. Occasionally, a big archaeology find could shake up a section as well.
they usually weren't that outdated for most things.
sure new info becomes available all the time, but some things take time to hash out anyway. when i was a kid in the 90's, we had a late 70's encyclopedia set. i used to just read them all the time.
was some of the info a bit incomplete compared to more modern methods? absolutely. but at least it gave you a good jumping off point. it might spark an interest in a particular subject, that could be furthered at the school or local library. also by the mid 90's we had a newer CD-ROM based encyclopedia set.
i always appreciated that my stepdad tried to make sure i had books, but also a healthy dose of practical knowledge as well. i remember having a old Boy Scouts field manual and a few other books, that taught me a number of useful and practical skills.
It's very different today. People have learned to get rich selling misinformation to morons. At least you knew Aunt Marge probably didn't have a complete understanding of whatever she was telling you.
The internet is like having hundreds or more relatives, not just the one aunt giving you the single viewpoint, and some of those relatives can explain their points better or have actual evidence to convince, unlike Marge who just says she wouldn't lie to you. Which ones are right? It's up to you in how you determine that. Maybe some are so trustworthy in past subjects that you can take what they say at face value. Maybe it's a matter of how many agree, or what you hear from them when they argue with each other. None of them may be right...you might have to form your own opinion.