Yeah, after a few years of Reddit, I started calling this kind of thing "internet advice"... ok for a discussion, but often contradictory or wrong (if I happen to know the topic in depth).
For example, people give advice to grown men and women about how to proceed with their divorce or financial planning. Lots of up votes to lend credibility.... but if you dig into their history, the advice giver is 14 years old according to their other posts on other subreddits.
Yeah absolutely! It's crazy and I think one of the reasons why I really need to cut down my internet and reddit usage down somewhat.
For a topic like this, that I know nothing about, I am mildly curious and don't want to research it in-depth to get an answer as this would be a wildly bad use of my time, so i rely on others that seem more knowledgeable, but the problem is, who do you believe and what can you trust when you do this? To really know, you have to verify, but to do so on a mild interest topic, is not worth it, therefore how much of this general consumption is ultimately of any use or has much of a point.
Worse, I wonder in which topics my view is now warped, as I read some comment somewhere that I accepted as truth at the time and I now believe it although cannot remember the source.
One of the troubles with Reddit, is that upvotes give a post apparent credibility but are voted on by everyone and most of the people there aren't experts or know what they are talking about, so the reality is whatever sounds the best, sounds 'nicer' or more politically correct gets the upvote. The truth, which might not fit that mould, will get much more mixed results.
Same here... I also realize that over time I learn to predict what the top comment will be on certain topics. For example, in the AITA subreddit, I will always form my own opinion that is then "tested" by reading the most popular responses in the thread.
The problem is, just because redditors think that a response is correct does not mean that it is. But at some point, especially on topics you know less about, you may start to confuse this prediction with your own opinion. Scary stuff!
Heh, for me, I've been a little surprised sometimes by how people think ChatGPT is amazing, sure it's great tech, but people seem to be using it for all sorts of stuff and when I try it, I find that it ends up spewing generic nonsense but then I realise, this is the same nonsense I will get by googling very similar topics.
I tried Google Bard. It's hilarious. You ask it a non-trivial question... and it starts to give incorrect or contradictory answers within the same conversation. And if you correct Bard, well it just apologises and says "I am still learning".
Yes, many people enjoy making things up, and they are good at it, and it's hard to detect.
Reddit is particularly awful, but HN definitely isn't immune. The moderator's attitude to lying is generally very lame, eg here's someone admitting to habitually lying:
This is a very interesting post, thanks for sharing, and even if most are not doing it deliberately as this person is it confirms the issue with such sites.
For example, people give advice to grown men and women about how to proceed with their divorce or financial planning. Lots of up votes to lend credibility.... but if you dig into their history, the advice giver is 14 years old according to their other posts on other subreddits.
No disrespect to the people here. Just saying...