About Blaine

Internet research: cautions and pitfalls.

By Published On: April 27th, 2023Categories: Wisdom from BlaineComments Off on Internet research: cautions and pitfalls.

One of my missions is to help women step into their own power about health and wellness.

Each and every one of us is an individual. While we’re all human and female and over 50, which gives us similarities, we still have so much about us that is unique.

In my personal health journey, I’ve learned that I need a team around me to help me see my blind spots. I used to think I could do everything alone, and that’s what made me sick!

Now, instead of going solo in everything: understanding my health, growing my business or nurturing my relationships, I have a team!

If you’re trying to figure things out by yourself, one of the potholes many fall into is relying on the internet.

Click bait news reporting and misleading marketing practices create a real threat – which is an unreliable internet flooded with misinformation that appears accurate enough… It’s completely disorienting.

Social media makes things even worse. In The New Yorker, Willy Staley said, “Twitter’s current atmosphere [is] ‘the part of the dinner party when only the serious drinkers remain.”

I feel that.

There’s a pool of information on the internet that is both shallow and easy to hang out in. It’s full of articles influenced by what large entities with huge marketing budgets are putting out in the world in order to make sales.

That’s not where I go to learn, nor should you.

And hopefully, you don’t get your information from other people to get their information from that pool either.

When I start typing on my keyboard to seek knowledge, it’s from sources and people I’ve followed for many years and trust. I head to the “deep water” to work hard, read, think and cross reference. I send writers and researchers emails to ask questions and attempt to really understand.

They write me back – all the time.

We need two-way dialogue with people, not one-way consumption of what’s on our screen.

Here’s another idea as a response to an unreliable and disorienting internet: more of us might decide instead of doubling down on our time spent online to be incentivized to spend more time in the real world, fostering real connections and rediscovering the world that exists outside of our phones.