The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 3 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on November 13, 2020.
Editor’s note: The article below was originally published on the Neretva blog (https://neretvastream.wordpress.com/) on August 23, 2020, and is reprinted with the author’s permission.
By Jovana Jovanovska ’23
Staff Writer
“A picture is worth a thousand words”—a thought we all find familiar and we could easily associate with the foundation of Instagram. In today’s world, Instagram is recognized as a platform for sharing art, ideas, and opinions, as well raising awareness on social issues around the world. Essentially, it’s an efficient method to communicate with a wider audience by posting photos. Many people have used the perks of social media to become influencers—by sharing their travels, the products they use, the clothes they wear. Some others have decided to share their work, whether that’s their cooking, graphic illustrations, or latest businesses. Lastly, there [are] the people who use Instagram as an outlet to share about current events happening in the world, including the protests in Belarus, the Beirut explosion, or ICE’s guidelines on international students in the US. These posts often consist of data visualization, images, and testimonies—all of them integrated in an aesthetically pleasing design. This technique is appealing to the readers because it’s not complicated to understand and it takes only a few seconds of our time to read everything—ideal for our short attention span. Evidently, those same readers are a particularly significant part of the whole process. After reading and coming up with their own assumptions, they share the post on their account, further broadening the audience and allowing for that one post to reach millions of views in an effortless manner. Unsurprisingly, many of those posts reached my news feed, and although they were coming from diverse regions, they all had one principal goal—share information with others. I thought it was an exceptional idea because it allows you to get a glimpse about an issue happening somewhere—and if you develop an interest in the topic, you can search for more information. If not, you would have still read a new thing, making it a win-win situation. However, I started noticing a trend when people would share these kinds of posts. In many instances, they would also include the phrase “Educate yourself.” By giving them the benefit of the doubt, I was guessing that their main reasoning was to put emphasis on the importance of the specific issue. However, whether that was the case or not, I have reason to believe that saying “Educate yourself” is only detrimental in the conversation on social issues because it’s not bringing any pragmatic arguments.
So, why should we stop saying Educate Yourself?
We are all ignorant *in some way or another*
There is so much information around us that it’s impossible to be knowledgeable on every topic. It takes a significant amount of time, effort, and concentration to gain more understanding. It also requires our interest in the subject matter.
However, saying Educate Yourself doesn’t make you educated. Being more informed on a topic doesn’t make you superior. As species [that] are able to share information through communication, it’s more beneficial to help one another in the quest for knowledge rather than using tactics to humiliate others. Give your insights and focus on your own thoughts. Then, use your public speaking, storytelling, and communication skills to present your comprehension [of] the topics you know. Educate based on your own path of acquiring knowledge. In the meantime, don’t forget to allow others to teach you, too.
Furthermore, I strongly urge for the normalization of saying: I don’t know. I think it’s advantageous to be opinionated because it can lead to innovation and critical thinking.
However, I also believe that it’s acceptable to state your opinion while also adding that you are not completely familiar with the topic. In this way, you are contributing to the conversation yet, at the same time, you’re informing the others that what you’re sharing at the moment is based on your limited understanding. This gives room for improvement for both you and the people in the conversation. Saying that you don’t know something doesn’t take away your opportunity of learning about it further down the road. It’s not a state of weakness, but rather one of immense growth and maturity. No one should be afraid of saying they don’t know—we’re all learning throughout our entire life.
Not everyone knows how to find reliable sources
It’s a privilege to be able to search for well-founded and reputable references during your research. It’s also a privilege to be aware of the risks of fake news, especially nowadays, when most of the news coverage we receive is through social media outlets. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you fit in the privileged category I wrote about above if your definition of being an educated individual is by only saying: “I do my own research” or “Wake up! Don’t Trust Fake News”.
Fundamentally, watching YouTube videos and reading social media or questionable website posts is not reliable information and does not signify that you’re educating yourself. A few hours or a day of reading sources cannot be compared to the efforts of researchers who have committed their whole lives to answer vastly specific questions. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t believe that it’s unacceptable to share your opinions online, my problem is when people claim it as research. It’s reasonable to leave it as it is—merely an opinion.
On the other hand, the persons who have had the privilege to become competent in doing research are examining the author’s credentials and affiliations, evaluating the sources and whether they’re up to date, they’re checking for endorsements and reviews, and looking up the credibility of the publisher of the source. There are many barriers to develop this useful skill. For instance, although there is a large number of primary sources available at no cost for readers, there are many that either require payment or are unavailable for people not affiliated [with] certain institutions, like higher education. Some readers don’t even have access to a reliable Internet connection. Not everyone has the financial means to read reputable sources. Moreover, certain languages are more prominent on the Internet. Based on data from [Internet World Stats for] 2020, 25.9 percent out of Internet users communicated in English. The top 10 languages on the Internet are used by 76.9 percent of Internet users compared to 23.1 percent for all the other languages. This indicates that if you don’t speak English or one of the other nin[e] languages in the list, you are predisposed to receiving less information online overall. Therefore, next time you think of saying “Educate Yourself” to someone, maybe it would be a better idea to understand your privilege and try to help them learn how to research properly, instead.
Saying “Educate Yourself” is just the easy way out of a conversation.
