Use of the internet

[alphamale]

Are people today unable to use the internet to research a question of a topic of interest?

Why do people post really dumb questions when they could just put key words into google and get the answer?

I do like the question below about boats being affected by lunar gravity. That is an interesting question. Lets have more of that type.

[gary baldy]

Because if people did do as you suggested it would give now-it-alls like me nothing to do!
Ive just been 'told off' by other ABers for questioning the motivation behind some apparently pointless questions or questions you can get out of any dictionary.
I suppose that some people see Answer bank as the easiest way to find information.

[matty2670]

Fair point, Alphamale. I put it down to the fact that it's almost too easy to get an answer that way, and sometime's it's more fun (and informative) to get different takes on the same subject. I myself have posted some really stupid questions (because I actually wanted to know the answers) and watched with interest as experts argue over them!

[mibn2cweus]

It's been a while but it was googling (or yahoo?) that brought me here to ab land and I still have not found an answer to my question; anywhere in the Whole Wide World! I don't remember the question I was asking but this is still my favorite Q&A forum.

[fo3nix]

alphamale: i do totally agree with you.

people should learn of google and wikipedia. from there you can learn about most things.

what this sort of site should be used for, are the types of questions that are quite hard to find an answer for, and those that still carry a lot of debate around them (thus you can get a good set of point-of-view points).

plus lots of questioners just what opinions on what computer they should buy, which is the best this or the best that. those sort of answers can be very hard to find online (true independant opinions, i mean).

[stevie21]

I find it ironic that this question is in the Science section rather than the Internet and Technology section. :-)

I do agree on some of the questions though that if people want to find out something for themselves then they could find it on google just as quickly as it takes to ask the question here.
Google doesn't lead to the same arguments though.

[WaldoMcFroog]

My wife is a chartered librarian working at a university. Once of the single biggest challenges they face is the 'Google Generation' of kids who genuinely believe that Google and Wikipedia etc. can answer all their research needs. Whilst both are undeniably extremely useful tools, they are not the be all and end all, and provenance and quality are often difficult to determine. She says trying to teach them otherwise is like pulling teeth.

If you want to know 'What song has the lyrics 'He blew his mind out in a car'?', Google is perfect, but for any more serious/ accademic enquiries, one needs to be careful. A site like this is useful for fairly trivial enquiries, but almost as much as the banal questions that could be answered quicker using Google, some of the serious enquiries on here are astonishing. People consulting AB instead of NHS Direct about medical issues, AB instead of lawyers on legal issues etc etc. There was even a guy attempting to use AB as a primer in statistical analysis for a work-related project he was engaged it, which is madness!

There's definitely a place for AB; I wouldn't have been hanging around like a bad smell since... <checks profile> dear god! since Oct 2001!!! if it wasn't, but there's other places where one can get information too, and sometimes they're better. Some of them are called 'books'..! ;-)

[gary baldy]

Books?
Oh - I read about them on the internet.
How do they work exactly?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Not sure.

I just mentioned them to try and sound clever. Didn't think anyone would call me on it, to be honest.

[qapmoc]

mibn2cweus, if you can't remember the question how do you know that you never had an answer?

[Hammond Egg]

I think I might have been one of the people who 'told you off' for questioning the motivation behind some apparently motiveless questions, gary baldy. Since which time I have noticed a number of such questions. Apologies to you, or to whoever I gave the telling-off to.

Having said that: part of the difficulty with google is knowing which keywords to type in - put them in the wrong order or with quotation marks in the wrong place and you won't get much joy. It helps to be able to spell correctly, too.

[Hermia]

Many, many people are just hopeless at using search engines. I'm a librarian and people constantly come in saying they were looking for some information and google found nothing. I search on google and instantly find the information. I always ask them what keywords they put in and I get some mad replies! I do little training sessions on internet searching and find that lots of people do need to be taught how to use a search engine.

[alphamale]

I posted this question here because this is were I see many of the Duh type questions:

what is a light year?

what is Ca, Xe, P, He. Our chemistry teacher asked us to find out.

what is a carbohydrate. Can you give links and explain type and what they are for?

And then people wonder why employers say that exams are dumbed down and the kids are thick.

You have to learn to use all of the learning and information aids available to you - friends, books, people who know about the subject you want to question, libraries etc. The internet is really good because even if you can't find the exact answer that you want then it will give you pointers where to go to outside the internet. Remember when using the internet: don't believe everthing you read - rubbish in rubbish out.

What this and other sites like this should be used for is for discussion, for putting forward questions for debate or to be thrashed around to get a collection of views as pointed out above - so I am not alone in these views.

I would rather people research their question before posting it - asking 'what is the speed of light' only makes you look a bit of a tit.

"Baldrick, what do you think? Thinking is so important."

"Thinking is so important My Lord."

So, when you have got your information try and learn from it. I can't believe that people appear not to even TRY to research some of thier questions before they ask them.

The whole human race will die out if we carry on like this. Now, there is a point for discussion. Not, why is the sky blue. But, "I don't understand what I've read about the why the sky is blue - can someone simplify it?" is a valid question.

[alphamale]

Try this useful site for chemistry questions - it may not give the exact answer but it will point you in the right direction: http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/H/k ey.html

[mibn2cweus]

qapmoc, selective memory. Just in case, the question was: ?

[Consie]

alphamale, whilst I agree there are some dumb questions asked, the clue is in the title "answerbank". Perhaps you could start "the debatebank" specifically for debate. What I like about AB (and I'm very new to it) is the friendly banter and humour (q.v. gary baldy - here and other sections).

Those of us who can not only recognise but also know how to use reference books are showing our age!

[alphamale]

Hello Consie, you do realise that the human race is going to stall, or die out, if we lose our ability to research/learn/reason.

Think of the films Soylent Green or 1984 - do you want to end up like that?

There are some questions which do not have a clear answer as you can get a different answer depending on how you approach it - that's worthy of discussion to get other peoples views/answers.

But when you ask about the speed of light, really there is only one answer that will be accepted on an exam paper (except if you are Prof. Hawking). The speed of light question is just an example of a really really dumb question as the answer can be found so easily. What is unsure about that question.

Just because this is an 'AnswerBank' does not mean that you can be totally devoid of any intelligent thoughts.

As for the question, sorry, 'request' to 'supply all the links for intersting science web sites' make you wonder what is going on in the persons mind - I assume very little.

I want to encourage people think before they ask relatively simple questions and maybe do a little research first - it's not much to ask. It's up to us oldies to encourage the youngsters to think again.

Although I can see some support, there is not a lot. We're doooomed (Tommy/Capt. Mainwaring). ;-)

[camioneur]

alpha male, ur a pompous ass