I find it interesting how many people seem utterly unable *(or unwilling?) to deal with even the simplest things — the smallest of difficulties — without resorting to a cry for help.
Whatever happened to self-reliance?
Have we just gotten so lazy that we determine that it is easier to ask someone else to do our chores, as opposed to doing them, ourselves? Or are we no longer thinking for ourselves?
Just Figure it Out!
I guess I was just brought up with the "figure it out on your own" school of thought, and my parents had pretty much zero time — or tolerance — for me running to them with questions I could easily work out the answer to.
As a result I learned to think for myself, pretty much out of necessity... there would be no answers unless I worked them out by myself, or at least was able to bring my parents "proof of reasonable attempt" to work things out first, alone.
On one hand, I am grateful to my parents for forcing me to think. That's definitely an upside!
The downside is that I never really learned how to ask for help... when I actually NEEDED it. Which resulted in a pattern of "just not doing" a whole slew of things if I felt unable to work out how to do them by myself.
A Positive Influence
I was helped a good bit by my elderly aunt Ulla whom I've mentioned a few times over the years... she helped raise me. She'd also lived alone pretty much her entire life after age 50, so she was a true "master" of "how to do a 3-person job when there is only yourself."
To this day, I use many of her ideas when I undertake large and overwhelming tasks. Although most of those tasks were more about physically demanding jobs, she was also a keen thinker who was particularly adept at coming up with ways to do things that weren't exactly "conventional thinking," but they still worked.
She actively paid attention to keeping her mind keen and sharp; on a daily basis doing the most difficult crossword puzzle carried by any of the major Danish newspapers of the time.
I remember watching her do her personal and investment accounting for her taxes and wondering why she wasn't using a calculator, but instead chose to do the calculations on the numbers "long hand." She told me that she "didn't want her mind to go dull" as a result of relying excessively on a machine to do the work for her.
The Internet Effect?
I wonder, sometimes, whether the Internet has made us smarter or dumber.
These days, "doing research" as often as not means "Googling it," but is that really? research? Or is it simply regurgitating someone else's brief notes from research done in the past, neatly summarized into 3-sentence nuggets?
I remember "research" when I was in college, poring over card catalogs and microfiches. You couldn't just Google "How do do research," you had to learn it as you went along. And there were lots of blind alleys and U-turns.
Don't get me wrong... I'm very grateful for search engines and the wealth of information available online. But you still have to know how to think, in order to be able to drill down to the specifics you're actually looking for!
Thanks for reading, and happy Memorial Day/Remembrance Day!
How about YOU? Are you pretty good at working things out on your own? Or do you prefer to go directly to an online search of "how to?" Do you think the Internet has made us smarter... or dumber? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210530 23:45 PDT
0269/1512
I just can't ask for HELP and this is so so bad. Imagine I was 9 months 3 weeks pregnant and hungry and could not ask anyone to prepare me food, got it all done by myself and woke up in labour the next day (LOL).
I think one should know when to call for help after all we are not superheroes and we can't do it all by ourselves.
Internet is there, it's good. We can get a lot of knowledge from there but at the end of the day, we need to understand that it's people like you and I writing the Wikipedia. So it's better to seek professional or experienced help rather than diving into the pool of websites.
I have been working out things since i was able to differentiate left from right
Social media is an interactive platform that enlighten the people and most times inform us about the happenings around us. It has the positive and negative part, just have to focus on one which that benefit you
Is googling it the same as research? Now that's a really good question. Off the top of my head I would say that it is, as long as the person doing the googling is actually learning something that can be used more than once, otherwise it'd just be browsing.
Refer to my 'thinking about thinking' post.
It is true that the difficulty may be lost by those who choose the easy way.
If you push yourself to attempt the most difficult things you may also fail.
One requires persistence but when it comes to immediate gratification, there is no time.
No time to wait. No time to take. No pause or delay. Everything is now now now.
And an answer in an instant is convenient. Understanding however takes more time.
As John G Miller wrote;
If you think you can do better, push yourself a little harder.
You might be surprised what you are capable of.
The story about your aunt reminds me of my great grandmother.
She always had great advice.
Shit, did you just make me feel dumber?
Nah, I doubt that nearly summarizes the unless nature of the internet!
Fact is, the Internet is a great tool, and people will at some point turn to machines for everything!
Letting the codes ease the job stress is how I put it, though the consequences are there, it's less significant compared to the impact of the results acquired from its utility.
One of the most controversial fields your above-stated applies to fabulously is health. Critical thinking, thinking for yourself has totally been forgotten by most fellow humans. "Googling it" won't help as most research papers and studies are paid by certain entities to display well thought out results. Ghost writers are incentivised to regurgitate the same results. Knowing how to think is so crucial, yet so undervalued unfortunately. Good read!
i learn best by seeing many examples of the task i'm trying to do. sometimes i can work things out on my own but increase the complexity of the task and i'm more "reliant" on examples. i don't see this as a problem. but i also think that someone with skills in Internet can figure out how to research reasonably well and actually learn things.
i suppose i was left to myself pretty often as a kid as well, and my dad would ask me if i knew what stuff meant and then when i asked him "what?" he would tell me to look it up myself and laugh, so maybe i developed some methods early.
You are right but at the same time i don’t look down on those who don’t know how to figure things out for themselves....partially because until very recently, I was one of them...and also because the pampering my generation and younger received is going to lead to a deeper understanding of what self-love is for many people. Then later we can reintegrate, that aspect of toughness. By “later” I mean these past 4 years for me, perhaps the next few years for many others.
I am not sure if this answer is convoluted, I've made a lot of connections that I didn't bother clarifying but I feel you might understand so I tried to avoid making this into a whole essay
Why reinvent the wheel, if someone has already built one and posted it on the internet? I believe that the internet helps people solve problems faster. So people can focus on solving problems that have not yet been resolved.
Cellphones are now called smartphones, so we must be the dumb hahahaha.
I actually think there should be a balance. Sometimes it's necessary to ask for help. There might be things that are way above us and we need the support of others . When it becomes destructive is when we totally have to depend on people without wanting to think or do anything for ourselves. This way we are harming ourselves.
One of the most valuable things you can learn is how to teach yourself. Having said that, I'm so independent, I also have difficulty asking for help.
I tend to work things out for myself and then go and look to see if anyone else concurs with my theory, this helps me find what I really want on a search. I also find watching others do things helps me work out an easier way of doing it myself. We can't think of anything totally new without some form of input.
I also love doing puzzles. haven't sone one for quite a while so thanx for reminding me. There ya go I just got influenced by someone else. This is what life is about.