Growing lack of basic research skills?

[Miroku]

After looking over some health and fitness boards, I just had to come back here to pose a question.

Lemme set this up a little. On boards like the aforementioned health board, there are a lot of posts that are seeking information that one could readily find with a few queries on Google.com or your search engine of choice. People will post stuff like "I went to a friend's house for the first time and played with his cat. Now my eyes are watery and itchy and I'm sneezing. Anyone know what it might be?"

Another example is from Buddhanet.org, where you frequently see people posting topics like "Hi.. I'm Zfargig Nelson from Roy Clark High School in Jerkwater, Montana. I have to do a report on religions and was assigned the topic of Buddhism. Can anyone describe it to me? This report is due in 2 days. PLZ HELP!"

On information exchange boards, there just seems to be an epidemic of questions posted for topics that the people themselves could answer with a little research. I'm not talking requests for opinions or insight, but for basic information. Have people become so lazy that the only way to answer a question is to make a post in a forum and hope somoene answers all of your questions for you? Have we lost the ability to define a problem or question, outline a solution, and get answers for ourselves?

It's not like people are asking something as deep as "What is the meaning of life?" They're actually going on the net and posting questions like "What's a haberdashery?" Gee.. I dunno. Maybe you should ask what a dictionary is, first.

[Martin Blank]

Just send them here to talk with me a bit. They'll learn to research their words...

...or they'll find a rock in Tibet under which to hide.

[billf]

It isn't that the lack of skill is really frowing, it is that the number of stupid people online is growing by leaps and bounds. Remember that it was just 4 years ago that high speed internet access was not widely available to residential areas, and less than 10 years ago that any internet access was readily available. Now every one and their pet monkey is online, and be thankful the monkey can find throwingpoo.com all by himself.

Part of my job at one point in time was to do online searches for things, there isn't much I can't find in a matter of a few minutes anymore.

I refuse to look things up for people though, so don't even think about asking me. If I find something interesting I will look it up of my own free will, but if I'm looking up something for someone else they had better be looking into their wallet. I made a small fortune when the time came around to write up English papers.

[Idiot'sPride]

Ever been to a GameFAQs message board? I (and I think Shyknight as well) fo to the FFTA board alot, and there are some real idiots there... "hi dis is a noob questin but i wan 2 no how i change jobs??? i dun wanna look it up cuz im to lazy lol!!1" God, it's pathetic.

[dolphincheddar]

[quote="Martin Blank";p="162428"]Just send them here to talk with me a bit. They'll learn to research their words...

...or they'll find a rock in Tibet under which to hide. [/quote]
Course, you have to wonder if they can find Tibet.

[Martin Blank]

I'll sometimes help people if they're looking for really odd or obscure stuff, but for the most part, I'll try to start them on their own searches with clues on what to feed into Google or occasionally AltaVista. Many of them learn to find their own things.

[Blaze]

I will sometimes not research something before I say it. However, if I do so, I plainly state that it was NOT researched, and it really wouldn't matter anyway because the facts aren't relavent, just the ideas therein.

[amlthrawn]

Tangental point.

It's not only the inability to perform basic online research... it's research in any form. I am in disbelief at the amount of people who don't know how to do computer-aided classic (i.e. Library/periodical) research. It's pathetic.

Case in point. Professor assigns a research assignment. This assignment requires no fewer than 5 professional-grade sources. It makes me cry when you get 5 grad students saying "OMFG! we kant use g00gl3? were am i gonna get paperz???//slash"

[Martin Blank]

Amazingly enough, I am somewhat uncomfortable in any library that does not have an old-fashioned card catalog.

This means I am uncomfortable in virtually all libraries.

[Jezebel]

I liked the card catalogs. You could go a'lookin', find what you want, jot down the proper way to find it, and be on ye way. I don't like going up to information and asking the librarian if they carry "Dirty things to do in the bedroom 101".

[Daemonfly]

Even more uncomfortable when she pulls it out of her purse from taking it home the night before


My big thing is with newbies on support-based message boards posting the same exact questions as the previous 7 out of 10 postings. "Hi, do I need water in the tank for teh fishies?" "Whats better, Intel or AMD?" As well as those who post "cool" links to something thats been posted 10 times already.

"Search" link - top of page - enter search words - be enlightened. Congrats! IQ+1

[Miroku]

At my undergraduate university, they stopped updating the card catalogs in 1989 when they put in their computerized system. I can't tell you how many times I was pissed off because I couldn't find anything past '89 because the computers were down. It makes no sense to me to not have a non-computerized backup for libraries, especially if they have a notorious tendency to have computer problems.

It always amazes me to see posts on the aforementioned Buddhanet.org, blatantly stating the poster is asking questions for a report, and then lists a bunch of very basic questions like "Who was Buddha?" "How do you practice Buddhism?" etc. Some make posts asking for personal insights as part of a consensus, but many are simply asking for information you could find in any basic introduction to Buddhism. It seems more and more, folks are getting dumber not because they're incapable of absorbing information, but because they're too lazy to seek out and bother paying any attention to that information.

One of the absolutely scariest things I encountered as a basic geology teaching assistant was seeing the attitudes of education majors. About 50% of any class was comprised of education majors, and they were ALWAYS the first ones to ask "Is this going to be on the test? Why do *I* have to know this stuff?" Gee.. I don't know.. maybe because YOU'LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR TEACHING IT TO SOMEONE ELSE SOMEDAY! These people would bitch and moan the loudest about having to learn mineral classification, rock identification, map reading, and such.

Then, when in total disbelief, you cannot help but ask them WHY they decided to go into teaching, they respond, "Oh, because I love kids!"

[MissCheetah]

If they love the kids then they should be interested in doing the best job possible teaching them. That requires a love of the subject materiel and a thorough knowledge of it. If they don't have the ability or desire to learn the subject knowledge then they should just go be babysitters. They can see all the kids they want but won't be responsible for their education. Grrr. I used to teach Biology. I have a degree in the subject and went back afterwards to get my teaching cert. I get SO angry with the hordes of "education" majors who don't have brains! How can they be responsible for teaching things to kids when they don't know it themselves. Note, I also HATE the trend to dumb things down so that every child can get it. Some are just plain stupid. Get over it. Dumbing down a science class that is supposed to be college prep, does NOT help prepare them for college. If the kid can't handle that level class, even with my help avaliable every day for 2 hours after school, extra credit, etc, then the kid does not belong in that level class.

With regard to researching topics, I tend to just sarcastically tell them that there is a wonderful knowledge acquisition device called Google.com, or failing that, the library. I refuse to spoon feed them when they can go learn things on their own.