#they aren't writing academic papers or teaching history in schools

[beameized]

On “just google it” mentality

Looking over data has been made easier by search engines in the past few years and with it came the phrase “Just google it.” but I fell that this phrase is being misused by people as of late and I feel that the misuse of this phrase is evident to those who who take technological education, internet access and the opportunity of English mastery for granted. 

Having a giant database is going to help us gain knowledge of matters easily but there lies the problem of knowing how to use it. You’d think, ooohh everyone knows how to use a computer and surf through the web but that is actually false. There are still plenty of places where internet and technological access is terrible. So to say, having internet access and the corresponding digital literacy not only to comprehend its use but also to filter and authenticate the items that appear in your search is a learned skill and is a privilege to those of us who have had enough internet access to realize these unspoken rules.

This is the percentage of those with internet access based on the total population in 2017. I cannot speak much for other countries but I can for the Philippines. There are over 100 Million Filipinos and in 2017, that means there are 48 Million Filipinos without internet access. I heard that it has improved as of late and the percentage has risen up to 60.1%. That’s 2.1 Million more Filipinos who gained access in the past three years and that’s a good thing but these 2.1 Million people would have to learn to familiarize themselves with the use of it.

Access doesn’t equate to skills. Perhaps, they only know popularized apps like youtube or facebook or instagram. Knowing your way when surfing through the net isn’t something inborn to us. We learn it, either through schools or through surfing the net for years. And we have to understand that mocking people in the internet and making them feel guilty for being uninformed just doesn’t check out because you don’t know the technological background of this person. Were they taught to be computer literate since young? Did they only get their first smartphone? Do they have unlimited wifi access or are just phone data? Telling your classmate who has held a smartphone the moment it got released in the market to just google it is okay. Telling your thesis partner who has a laptop since forever and obviously has had the opportunities to familiarize with the internet to just google it isn’t a problem. But you can’t analyze someone’s computer and internet literacy as easily here. Not everyone is given the opportunity and the resources to learn about this and maximize its use and I hope that when you meet an uninformed person but are in a position that doesn’t allow you to send your online sources directly, you can tell them about looking over it through the net without sounding like a condescending prick.

(Also, please, if you can, help boost news about the Philippine’s issue with internet and tech problems. The government wants to shift to online learning but refuse to spend for it. It will gravely affect the schooling of Filipinos that lack laptops, ipads/tablets and internet access because we are expected to have these items ourselves. This is a classist attack against the right of the Filipino poor to education. Hashtags on twitter about this are #NoStudentLeftBehind, #AcademicFreeze, and #AcademicFreezeNow.)

There is also the issue about how native English speakers and perhaps those who have gained English mastery take for granted the fact that the internet caters to us.

English dominates the language used for contents in websites. It also is the most commonly used language on the internet, currently at 25%, just around 4% above Chinese. Non-native English speakers especially those who are still mastering the language take effort to comprehend content on the internet. It’s not as simple as ~just googling it~ because you’d need to sometimes translate it or look at a dictionary for help. The internet isn’t tailor-made for us and it requires more effort to adapt to it and maximize its use. So please, the next time you meet an uninformed person, don’t be a condescending prick about it. Inform them if you want to or at the very least direct them properly on how they could inform themselves. You don’t know the digital background of the person you end up conversing with in the internet. The least you could do is not guilt them for being uninformed and lacking the necessary skills that makes informing oneself easier.