To wonder why people can't just look simple things up?

[CornflakeMum]

We live in an age when it's never been easier to find out information - by googling or asking Siri/ Alexa etc.

Yet it seems our local area Facebook groups and all my WhatsApp groups are full of questions which people could have easily (and probably more quickly) answered for themselves, rather than clogging up social media feeds.

Just today I've seen:

• Is there a post office in the town?
• Do M&S sell cloth face masks?
• Anyone know what time B&Q opens?
• Does the bus stop on XYZ road?

and in my Book Group WhatsApp

• What's the date of the next meeting? - by someone who posted that 'the next meeting is xth Sept' herself about a month ago, with the book we'd chosen!

Is it laziness or stupidity or what? Why can't they just search for themselves?
AIBU??

It's learned helplessness. There's a gain from being like this.

I Google everything and really don't understand others that don't try to find info themselves first. My friend does this all the time which frustrates me so I've started saying that I don't know (even if I do) and that she should Google it. she is very tech savvy btw. I think it's just habit though. The Facebook posters I think maybe don't know what to post next so ask easily answerable questions

Why are people talking on MN? None of us have to. It’s not laziness or stupidity or being dramatic or making it all about them or because they can’t Google. It’s because people like talking, communicating, to real people.

@CornflakeMum

It's almost as irritating as people who post "can anyone recommend a really good plumber?" and then happily accept all the replies that say:

John H Smith - Yeah, JH Smith Heating & Plumbing are great!

Have people never heard of Checkatrade??!

I disagree with you there. I’d sooner have someone recommended personally.
However I’d want recommendations from people I know rather than random people.

Although looking things up online is more reliable than it used to be, it’s not totally reliable. If you look online to see if a product you’re thinking of buying is good or bad, you often find diametrically opposed views. Have you never heard of these sayings (just google them)?
“Don’t believe everything you read.”
“80% of statistics are made up on the spot.”

Reviews online can be very biased; they might be written by the supplier.

Also, some of us are old enough to remember life before looking stuff up online. Suppose you needed to check where the nearest post office was: you used to be able to look in your A-Z (post offices were shown by a star). But in the 90s, post offices started closing left right and centre, so this became an unreliable method. The point is, books would go out of date, so people would often back it up by asking somebody. My parents hung on to road atlases for so long, none of them showed the complete M25, so they were no use. So you knew that reality often didn’t match what you looked up, so you might ask someone instead. Old habits die hard.

At primary school, teachers used to tell us to look up words in a dictionary to check spellings; but how can you do that if you don’t know how to spell them? I remember a child tearing his hair out trying to look up “cucumber” under Q. Sometimes it’s not as simple as “just look it up”. And I’m sure some children heard “you should have asked if you didn’t know.”

Also, the sheer vastness of the Web can seem very daunting if you aren't used to zoning out all of the info you don't need and homing in on what you do. I can well believe that a lot of older/less technically-minded/non-NT people could be horrified to search and be told that there are 3,875,039 results, when they aren't used to looking down the first page, maybe stray into the second or third if necessary, to find what they need and then simply ignore all the rest.

This. It could be described as laziness or learned helplessness but sometimes I think people are just genuinely overwhelmed and prefer this. If you look at the amount of conspiratorial shit and fake posts that are shared on FB, you can see that people have problems distinguishing and working out what information is real. Strangely they have no problem believing drivel about the abilities of the current government, but prefer more accurate information about bus timetables. So they'll repeat bilge about how great Johnson is, but oddly enough won't go to the same source to find out about the local post office, because it's not trustworthy on that.

They just think it's better to ask Ethel who lives on the High Street than some strange algorithm, because who knows when they might go rogue.

Most people I know who do this are just looking for someone to talk to. Asking a question gets a conversation flowing quickly and can help someone stop feeling lonely.

I'd rather ask someone for a link to something they mentioned vs looking it up myself as 1). the person now knows someone was interested in what they said, 2). I'll definitely get the right link, 3). It often comes with other suggestions like similar things to read/watch and their thoughts on the content - which I'm usually interested in.

It's rarely due to the inability to look stuff up - the person just wants more than a factual answer - they want the feeling of being connected to another person.

I'm part of some social chatrooms that pretty much function like this - someone asks a question, it sparks some discussion and the topics move on and flow into new things. When things die off someone asks something new and it starts all over again. Often it's the only chance I'll have in a day to chat with someone as I'm housebound and don't often get visitors (and none at all since march!).

Local information on Google isn't always correct. I can understand why someone might want to ask a real person about opening times, bus times and so on.

As for shops, not all chains stock every product.

Finally, if you're not search-savvy it can be difficult to find the information you need - or you think you're reading about Birmingham in the Midlands, but actually the specialist shop you've found stocking your v. niche thing is in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Checkatrade is hardly a reliable source of information or recommendation.

But most of the time the best place to find the answer to the question is the website for the shop/service in question, and that's far more reliable than half of the answers on here. That doesn't require anyone to be google savvy as everyone knows that shops and services have websites and use them to publish commonly sought factual information like opening times. There's plenty of other things to post about if you just want to chat.

The whole COVID situation is a perfect illustration. People were constantly asking about 'the rules' but just about every thread discussing them had endless made up rules that served no purpose at all except to confuse.

You can only shop once a week and can only buy essentials not luxuries.

You can only go out to exercise for an hour each day.

You're not allowed to go to work unless your job is an essential job.

All totally wrong yet people posted all these 'facts' constantly when people asked about 'the rules'.

Anyone suggesting that you might want to look on gov.uk was either ignored or told that the information on there was wrong.

It’s the ‘asking for recommendations’ for absolutely everything.

My local fb is terrible for it.

Where can I get one of these? Posts picture of a basic looking lightbulb. Also asking for plain paper and those A4 files.

I just want to reply ‘shops’.

@BarbaraofSeville

But most of the time the best place to find the answer to the question is the website for the shop/service in question, and that's far more reliable than half of the answers on here. That doesn't require anyone to be google savvy as everyone knows that shops and services have websites and use them to publish commonly sought factual information like opening times. There's plenty of other things to post about if you just want to chat.

The whole COVID situation is a perfect illustration. People were constantly asking about 'the rules' but just about every thread discussing them had endless made up rules that served no purpose at all except to confuse.

You can only shop once a week and can only buy essentials not luxuries.

You can only go out to exercise for an hour each day.

You're not allowed to go to work unless your job is an essential job.

All totally wrong yet people posted all these 'facts' constantly when people asked about 'the rules'.

Anyone suggesting that you might want to look on gov.uk was either ignored or told that the information on there was wrong.

Plenty of shops and services running reduced hours at the moment who havent updates websites, google listings, Facebook pages etc and who aren’t answering phones.

Much easier to ask than waste a trip

Part of me misses the days when you were trying to remember something and could have a long rambling conversation about it “who was the actor in that thing with the aeroplane? I think he was also in the other one with Hugh Grant”. These days IMDB supplies the answer straight away and takes the fun out of reminiscing. This is a chatting with friends thing rather than a public forum post though.

I get endless emails enquiring about school trips asking for info very easily available on our website (and sometimes in the email they have just replied to). Hugely frustrating.

But if shops haven't updated their websites, FB may not actually know any better. It depends if the people answering actually know or have just googled it and are passing on completely out of date information.

I would rather ask locally for trades people as if they’re shit people will tell you.

@MilerVino

Also, the sheer vastness of the Web can seem very daunting if you aren't used to zoning out all of the info you don't need and homing in on what you do. I can well believe that a lot of older/less technically-minded/non-NT people could be horrified to search and be told that there are 3,875,039 results, when they aren't used to looking down the first page, maybe stray into the second or third if necessary, to find what they need and then simply ignore all the rest.

This. It could be described as laziness or learned helplessness but sometimes I think people are just genuinely overwhelmed and prefer this. If you look at the amount of conspiratorial shit and fake posts that are shared on FB, you can see that people have problems distinguishing and working out what information is real. Strangely they have no problem believing drivel about the abilities of the current government, but prefer more accurate information about bus timetables. So they'll repeat bilge about how great Johnson is, but oddly enough won't go to the same source to find out about the local post office, because it's not trustworthy on that.

They just think it's better to ask Ethel who lives on the High Street than some strange algorithm, because who knows when they might go rogue.

Brilliant post @MilerVino !

YANBU our local fb page is the same. Or asking the same questions every single day! Use the search function or just scroll to yesterday when someone else asked the same thing!!!

I don’t think it’s laziness or attention seeking, it’s lack of ability. I was walking with a friend to a particular place neither of us knew, she kept saying to me - what way now? (Because I am always the one who usually comes prepared and looks up the way...)

I said sorry I don’t know and my hands are full just now (carrying all the snacks for the place we were going) why don’t you just quickly run a google map on how to walk there.

I kid you not, I had to talk her through each and every step of how to do that. She has a job which requires this daily so I don’t know how she is even in work.

@SorrelBlackbeak

But if shops haven't updated their websites, FB may not actually know any better. It depends if the people answering actually know or have just googled it and are passing on completely out of date information.

Our local one tends to be answers like “I was there yesterday and the sign on the door said currently closing at 3” hence infinitely more useful than relying on a google busines listing that is out of date

I can be guilty of this.
Although not dyslexic i find some things eg bus timetables v hard
and also I sometimes get in a blind panic about things so it helps to have 'human contact'.
I am generally poor at tech.
i am lonely and can feel overwhelmed

I don't expect many folk to answer if I put a Qu out there (which I don't often do but when I do it is probably phrased in a 'helpless' way)

*Plenty of shops and services running reduced hours at the moment who havent updates websites, google listings, Facebook pages etc and who aren’t answering phones.

Much easier to ask than waste a trip*

I went to my local post office yesterday. It was closed. The website said it was open, the sign on the door indicated it should be open. It's in a parade of indie shops and restaurants. Nearly every one of them had a printed or handwritten note on the door, saying what their current opening hours/policies are on the door. ....but not the post office. You have to be a mind reader to know their opening hours!!

People are asking for local knowledge, or want to start a conversation on their social media, what a surprise.
Some people come on mumsnet just to moan about other people's posts on social media - they're probably after a similar outcome. It won't change anything, after all.
Don't let yourself get so wound up by other peoples behaviour.

....one exception I would make is that if there are problems with local public transport, the fb page is much more accurate and reliable than the relevant app!

I totally get the social contact reason and agree that occasionally it sparks a conversation.

I work in an area where researching and investigating things is key, so perhaps I have stronger skills in this area without realising it.

Certainly I recognise that too much info can be overwhelming. My DS is dyslexic and just can’t process pages and pages and it’s exhausting for him to try. Sometimes he’ll look at a massive menu in a restaurant and say ‘Mum, is there anything I like on this?’

It's why we are all here, isn't it.
99% of threads on Mumsnet are pointless one for the stats geeks there
But the occasional thread will be helpful, spark a connection, provide the right answer, make someone laugh.
For people who spend a lot of their time on SM, asking a question there is equivalent to asking someone in real life. More personal and interesting and enjoyable than simply googling, and you never know what else it might lead to.