"I have done my own research"

[MareofBeasttown]

Didn't want to put this in the coronavirus board because it's got so weird there. But just wanted to ask if I am the only one who does not do my own research in areas that I have no expertise in? I take expert advice and trust it will be fine.

I consulted my GP to ask if I should take the vaccine since I have no hope of understanding all the science behind the vaccine. Then I took it.
I go to lawyers if I have legal problems.
I have a financial consultant to help me with investments.

I am not saying none of these are ever wrong.DD had an illness that was not picked up by the family doctor, so I got a second and third opinion. But it was still better treated by a doctor than it would have been by Googling and trying to decipher medical journals on my own.

Am I just a lazy sheep?

Another thing that just occurred to me... Looking stuff up online is not "research"... It's, at best, information-gathering, no? It can't be good to confuse actual systematic research or investigative studies with just searching the internet.

TBH doctors are so stretched these days that I think it's fine for people to do their own research too. The doctor's never going to have time to cover everything, so personally I think they should accept 'Dr Google' has a role to play.

I have done my own research rarely means I have consulted appropriate sources and undertaken education so I can understand these sources. It usually means I have been on Reddit/google/whatever website confirms my point of view.

I think the big piece that's missing.... that we aren't talking about is the time element.

Sure a doctor knows waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than me about medicine. I would never deny that, it's foolish to think I have even 1% of the knowledge around medicine that they do. Of course I don't.

Problem is if I am living with a condition or set of symptoms for years... I might potentially spent 1000s of hours living with those symptoms, I might also spend 1000+ hours looking at medical resources online, probably read a few studies, probably read thousands of forum posts and messages from people who had similar symptoms and reading their experiences, probably reading from medical/health organizations online....

yet the doctor spends 10 minutes listening to me ( i might not even be able to articulate my symptoms very well )... he/she might have had 1 lecture in school on the disease I am suffering from... they might not even have known about it when they went to school so what they do know might be from 1 or 2 other patients who had the same thing. They might have had to do their own research when they had their first patient with that issue. Heck maybe you are the first patient who has this particular issue.

Medicine also evolves and some doctors are better at staying on top of those changes than others. You don't really know which you have (the one who is constantly keeping up to date or the one who is relying on their experience) unless you are fact checking him/her... which only comes from doing your own research.

Of course with a specialist these issues are much much less pronounced as they have a much narrower area to stay on top of than a GP so they're less likely to run into an issue they only had a 2 hour lecture on 1 time 15 years ago.

@Kanaloa

I have done my own research rarely means I have consulted appropriate sources and undertaken education so I can understand these sources. It usually means I have been on Reddit/google/whatever website confirms my point of view.

How many times are pupils set a homework involving "research". When you're told to research the solar system it means read up and find out about it, not set up a laboratory, and come back to me in 10 years with peer approved original research. Outside of a high level of academic study, "research" is taken to mean reading around.

I'd like to consider myself as averagely above average with my degree and professional background which orientated towards a social studies genre. When I look up an academic, scientific paper I can often handle sections such as the abstract, but I just don't have the depth of scientific knowledge of a good critical understanding of much of the analysis. The average reading age of millions of people is surprisingly low, and they're not able to get past BBC news. The vast majority of the population simply don't have the skills and knowledge to apply critical analysis to reading around a range of scientific sources. Plus you have to know who is who and what their various backgrounds and agendas are.

There is an issue with "editorial" (censorship?) of approved material regarding Coronavirus. Time and time again the material that agencies like the BBC and newspapers act as a weather vane towards the next phase that the government intends. This time last year we were groomed with imagery to accept masks as normal. Schools were unrealisticly staged with social distancing. Articles about the social impact of lockdown do not get released as restrictions are looking to be released, they are as they ease.

Science is not one neat cohesive community in agreement. There is dispute, U-turns and backroom agendas with the eye on the next round of funding. It pays to be in political favour.

Coronavirus is a fast changing field. I had my vaccination done around Easter, just as there was a big shift on blood clotting, my age group and my vaccine type. As it happens, I don't have regrets but I may well have made a different decision if I was a few years younger especially if planning on TTC in the near future.

Yea, but I wouldn’t expect my son to arrange a trip to Mars after his solar system ‘research.’ And usually children’s research is actually backed up by in class learning. Very rarely are they told to just google a topic and base their understanding of it on whatever sources they find.

How many times are pupils set a homework involving "research". When you're told to research the solar system it means read up and find out about it, not set up a laboratory, and come back to me in 10 years with peer approved original research.
Outside of a high level of academic study, "research" is taken to mean reading around.
To be fair as a teacher I take an issue with 90% of 'research' homework given to students because most of the time nobody has actually taught them about reputable and non-reputable sources, how to search for information, how to identify the most relevant pieces of information etc.

The PP is right when the point out that a lot of people who say "I've done my research" actually mean "I've looked on Reddit". Increasingly often it also means "I've looked at websites and YouTube clips that my social media echo chamber has shown me, or I've found something that supports my opinion and only followed links within that area".

I see the same in some CPD sessions. Someone trying to climb the career ladder stands at the front and says "the research says..." but what they actually mean is "I have an idea and this seems to support my idea, so I'll tell you the research is on my side"

Nobody expects people coming to an informed opinion to set up a science lab or do academic research worthy of publication, but lots of people use the phrase "I've done my research" as some sort of trump card that elevates their opinion to fact.

Choice is good though, isn’t it OP?

@LolaSmiles
To be fair as a teacher I take an issue with 90% of 'research' homework given to students because most of the time nobody has actually taught them about reputable and non-reputable sources, how to search for information, how to identify the most relevant pieces of information etc.

I am glad you raised this. And I was even more glad that one of my children brought home an assignment about researching the contribution of his ethnic group to this country's society, in which most of the questions were about choice of information sites and how they could be treated as reputable sources. Everyone needs to do this!

The number of people I know who make big decisions (which school or lawyer or dentist) based on what someone told them is amazing/alarming.

YADNBU

With you 100% OP. "Did my own research" is fine provided you are able to evaluate and interpret what you have read.

It depends what that research is. If it's reading an article from the daily Mail, then another from the mirror (for balance) and making a decision then it's ridiculous. But we do live in a time where there is SO much decent info at our finger tips it is entirely possible to educate yourself to a level where you can make decisions about your health or legal position or whatever.

I've had miss information from GPs, lawyers, teachers, care homes. If someone was an expert in a very niche area and they were engaged enough to care to give me proper solid advice then that could be okay but a GP during a 10 minute appointment? Nah.

Consulting with a GP on whether to take the vaccine or not was the most pointless thing you could do. You think most of them care about anything other than getting you out of the office as quickly as possible?

In what world was that GP going to tell someone not to get the vaccine?!

I do my own research if it's in my area of expertise or if don't feel I understand enough about something. (Generally medical and related to myself).

I haven't done my own research on Covid because it's not my field and I'm happy to accept that there has been a lot of consultation with epidemiologists, virologists, statisticians etc and that ultimately some form of consensus has been agreed upon, using data and evidence that is not necessarily available to me. It's also not likely that I would draw the same conclusions. I do not have the knowledge and experience to judge.

When I do research though - like a pp said - I'm an academic and extremely thorough in looking not only for the evidence, but for the academic background and the integrity of the research I'm studying. I don't get my information from online forums with anonymous posters like many of those posting really ignorant stuff seem to.

Doing your own research is only worth it if you are capable of critically evaluating the provenance of what you are reading, and if you are capable of analysing the information correctly.

@LolaSmiles

How many times are pupils set a homework involving "research". When you're told to research the solar system it means read up and find out about it, not set up a laboratory, and come back to me in 10 years with peer approved original research. Outside of a high level of academic study, "research" is taken to mean reading around. To be fair as a teacher I take an issue with 90% of 'research' homework given to students because most of the time nobody has actually taught them about reputable and non-reputable sources, how to search for information, how to identify the most relevant pieces of information etc.

The PP is right when the point out that a lot of people who say "I've done my research" actually mean "I've looked on Reddit". Increasingly often it also means "I've looked at websites and YouTube clips that my social media echo chamber has shown me, or I've found something that supports my opinion and only followed links within that area".

I see the same in some CPD sessions. Someone trying to climb the career ladder stands at the front and says "the research says..." but what they actually mean is "I have an idea and this seems to support my idea, so I'll tell you the research is on my side"

Nobody expects people coming to an informed opinion to set up a science lab or do academic research worthy of publication, but lots of people use the phrase "I've done my research" as some sort of trump card that elevates their opinion to fact.

My DD had to do research during homeschooling and I rubbed my hands at an opportunity to teach her something in my area of expertise! Realistically it was reading the websites they were directed to and copy out the sentence answering the question.

But me being me launched into a lesson on sources and plagiarism. She got the answers the teacher was looking for but I hoped she would also take in the way to get those answers.

However the real learning for me was her feedback 'but research is boooooooriiiiing'. So apparently I am neither a good teacher nor engaging researcher 😂

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I find it particularly useful during times of extreme media views e.g. elections.

I think everyone should take responsibility for their own health and read up about relevant conditions...but agree that some people who are not educated have problems knowing what are valid sources.

I find reading medical journal articles really interesting and always look up any drug I am prescribed via BNF. Professional medical bodies are also a good source, for example when I had hyperemesis in pregnancy I took the RCOG guidance with me to the GP as it was really useful in suggesting drugs that were safe for use in pregnancy. GPs don't have time to read the guidelines for every single condition, they barely get enough time to see patients these days!

I don't entirely agree. There are a lot of rare diseases out there. My GP knows nothing about mine. I only see a consultant every 6 months so yes I do google symptoms to see if they are related to my condition or something else. Googling actually keeps me away from bothering my Dr too much and keeps my anxiety at bay as I can usually find some thing online to soothe symptoms or at least be comforted that what I am experiencing isn't something they forgot to tell me.

You do have to become your own advocate to a degree. If I had known more, talked to more people, I might have opted to try the ground breaking drug I am on sooner.

No, your approach serves society better, and usually (probably) you

Researching is ok as long as it from the right sources

I have a few things wrong with me and do research and did ask repeatedly why I couldn’t be in the research for covid but eligible for the vaccine no one could tell me but just get it anyways.

I did my research from what I could find and weighed up the pros and cons and got both jabs.

I do not go blindly into the GPs these days because of errors in the past. I research it all and I’ve come to the conclusion most in my counties haven’t kept up and are so behind on data it’s staggering.

I think it’s good we have questions and don’t think doctors are gods anymore. Even if it’s Dr Google and the GP can reassure us well some do some actually patronise you instead and make you feel shit for even asking or having a different opinion. I always have questions and my now doctor welcomes it well there is two that take on board that I should know more than them about my condition as I live with it day in day out.

I’m still reading and researching and weighing up the pros and cons of certain things.

In my experience, 'doing my own research' over complex matters consists of googling until something that supports your original suspicions is found. It's a phrase, along with 'I'm a very spiritual person', that makes me step away from someone immediately. Life's too short for such time wasters.