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??

@Namechangr9000

On our local fb page someone often asks for recommendations for example , an optician, or a hair dresser, both of which we have multiples of in the town. Usually 20 people reply nearly all saying something different....and you are no better off than not asking! The other thing is people asking for a bespoke ite., or service that they need by friday for example. As if there will be a decent cake maker/decorator/dressmaker that has no orders or business more than a day ahead and is sitting waiting for someone to ask them!

I believe it’s taken this long for someone to post what I was thinking.

It’s alright saying local knowledge is great but sometimes people just guess and you get three different answers of an opening time for example. Of which two went yesterday so they know 🤦🏻‍♀️

I know what you mean. Used to irritate me when I was on FB. Lots of randoms asking about mainstream stuff, such as who was voted off X Factor.

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

The internet, smart phones etc have been a double edged sword. It's a brilliant resource for the motivated, but it's made a lot of people lazy and stupid. Of course, some people have always been disorganised, lazy or stupid and the internet/smart phone revolution should have solved that, but it does seem to have made it worse.

I see a lot in my job with people forgetting things, i.e. meetings, renewing their insurance, paying bills, etc. They could so easily set up reminders on their phones, but are too lazy to do even that.

@SBTLove

The IQ comment is irrelevant, one of my DD is brilliant academically and has a 135IQ but asks questions that amaze me as I think she should know, peoples brains work differently esp with reading timetables/charts. Questions like where to buy a cake is maddening and is attention seeking.

That's because there are three different "measures" of brain power:

Intelligence
Common Sense
Wisdom

You can only teach the first. The second two come with experience.

Thanks @52andblue It reminds me of how I am when I get on a train. I check the departures board, double check the platform number, look on the front of the train and then if there are seat reservations I check them as well. Despite all this, if someone gets on the train and says 'is this the train to Exeter?' I'll still say something like 'I hope so, because that's where I'm going'. Sometimes despite all the tech and info, you still want confirmation from a human that you've got it right.

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

I expect so OP. I do a lot of research and can find things in a few minutes that other people have struggled with for days. They probably have other skills that I lack, but having a feel for the right search terms is one of my strengths.

There was a classic one from someone on our village facebook page. It was someone I know (distant relative) who had moved into the village a few months earlier. She was asking what shops were in the village and whether there was a kids playground, etc. Now, this is a typical/traditional village with a "centre" that's a green with a kid's play area and surrounded by several shops. She'd not actually ventured into the village centre at all, despite living here for a few months. It's not some huge village either - she lives maybe 5 minutes walk from the centre or 1 or 2 minutes by car. Yet rather than actually look around the village, she wanted someone to tell her what there was. The mind boggles.

Happens a lot in my local group too. I do think sometimes people are asking specifically because it's not always obvious if you google and recently shops and restaurants may not have been open at their usual times or offered their normal services. So it may be more useful if someone else can say "yes I went there yesterday and it was open at 6pm".

One thing that annoys me about local groups is questions that have no relevance to the area. So things like "where is good for a holiday in Greece?" or "how do I set up my new phone?".

I do think sometimes people are asking specifically because it's not always obvious if you google and recently shops and restaurants may not have been open at their usual times or offered their normal services.

True, but the shop's phone number and email address won't have changed, and they will be on the website, so surely it's simpler and more definitive to give them a quick call or drop them an email? Otherwise, you're hoping that somebody might know about their opening hours, when you can guarantee that whoever answers the phone will know exactly when their opening times are.

This thread has reminded me that many FB users don't actually realise they are using the internet. It's possible that people on FB genuinely just don't get their heads around the fact that the same tool that allows them to access FB will get them onto search sites. qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre-using-the-internet/

Probably naughty of me, but I'm really chuckling away here at the idea of replying 'shops' to anybody asking where they can buy run-of-the-mill everyday items

This thread has reminded me that many FB users don't actually realise they are using the internet. It's possible that people on FB genuinely just don't get their heads around the fact that the same tool that allows them to access FB will get them onto search sites.

I think you're right there. I've encountered quite a few people who think that 'the internet' is what you access on a laptop or desktop, but that phones use an entirely different source. Yes, the connection might differ - fixed fibre broadband as opposed to 4G/5G when out and about - but they're both connecting to the exact same internet; there is only one!

[quote MilerVino]This thread has reminded me that many FB users don't actually realise they are using the internet. It's possible that people on FB genuinely just don't get their heads around the fact that the same tool that allows them to access FB will get them onto search sites. qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre-using-the-internet/[/quote]
Yes!
These must also be the same people who post in a public, local forum, get an answer from someone they know, then proceed to have what should really be a private offline discussion in full view of everyone else e.g.

A: Anyone know a good builder?
B: Yes, my BIL is really good...
A: Oh Hi, A! How are you doing? Haven't seen you for ages?
B: Yes, good, thanks. Was down the hospital last week though... a few problems with the waterworks, y'know?
A: Oh, sorry to hear that. And how did Betty's hysterectomy go last month?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

This thread has reminded me that many FB users don't actually realise they are using the internet. It's possible that people on FB genuinely just don't get their heads around the fact that the same tool that allows them to access FB will get them onto search sites.

I think you're right there. I've encountered quite a few people who think that 'the internet' is what you access on a laptop or desktop, but that phones use an entirely different source. Yes, the connection might differ - fixed fibre broadband as opposed to 4G/5G when out and about - but they're both connecting to the exact same internet; there is only one!

No, seriously, come on?

But then, from watching Pointless, I have learned that they found 2 people who could not identify a lion from a clear picture of said animal and once you'd got onto the really tricky subjects like main ingredients in cake, or countries that well known cities are located within, around a third of people do not know that cake contains flour, sugar, butter or eggs, that Cologne is in Germany or Malaga is in Spain.

I was also gobsmacked years ago when we had a lodger. He worked on an industrial park a couple of miles away. Sometimes he got the bus, but if I was passing at the right time, I would drop him off. The first time I did this, I stopped the car about 5 minutes walk from the industrial park, said 'are you OK to walk from here' and waited for him to get out of the car (I did not take him right into the car park because it was out of my way over a tricky and busy roundabout and it would have been quicker to walk).

But it transpired that he had no idea that it was literally around the corner and had been getting a bus into the main city and then getting a second bus all the way to the industrial park, instead of getting off the bus that went from outside our house to pretty much where I had dropped him and was round the corner from where he worked. He had been taking nearly an hour on the bus and paying double fares instead of a 10-15 minute journey and a short walk, which he was perfectly capable of undertaking.

No, seriously, come on?

Seriously, look at the link I posted. Researchers twigged that FB users don't realise they are on the internet when surveys showed FB usage to be higher than internet usage - generally in African and Asian countries. You need to switch your mindset a bit to work this out. Imagine you buy a phone, someone connects it to the internet for you. You then only really connect to FB. You go on your phone and do everything via FB. It's just a piece of tech you use, you don't know the nuts and bolts of it. So to you, FB is one thing, and the internet is something else entirely.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Probably naughty of me, but I'm really chuckling away here at the idea of replying 'shops' to anybody asking where they can buy run-of-the-mill everyday items

Glad it amused you.

I’ve never dared do it though. It’s the sort of thing that regularly appears on my local mums fb page. I fear I’d get banned.

I've come to the conclusion that the sort of people who do this are those who still use Travel Agents to book holidays

Yes!!!!

Jen and ‘the internet’.

@SisterAgatha

I've come to the conclusion that the sort of people who do this are those who still use Travel Agents to book holidays

Yes!!!!

Surely the only people to use travel agents these days are the ones without a smart phone, let alone the internet? I would have thought it's really only the non-tech savvy oldies these days. Would any younger/middle aged person really use a travel agent - why?

Would any younger/middle aged person really use a travel agent - why?

Hell, yes! We're very tech-savvy, could easily research holidays etc, but we still use our local travel agent when we want to piece together something a bit more complex than 2 weeks in Spain.

They often have access to much better deals and places and quite frankly we can't be arsed don't have time!

Travel agents are the new concierge service I feel!

My parents would use a travel agent. They don’t even have the internet. They still send me cheques too.

No, seriously, come on?

Yes, as has been documented - mainly older people and/or parents responding to their kids' requests/interests without really caring about it themselves. I can only think that's why so many parents will happily buy their young children graphic computer games aimed at adults - because they see it that it's a kids' toy (aren't interested themselves), so anything that can be used with it must be fine for kids.

I remember an episode of Pointless where there were pictures of five planets in the Solar System and people were asked to say which one each of them was. A certain planet was only correctly identified by 89 of the 100 people. I won't say which one it was, but I'll give a clue: they all lived on it Still not as amazing as the 3% of (presumably British) people who didn't know and couldn't guess the modern name of the city known to the Romans as Londinium

I can well believe the lodger story. Once people get used to the idea that the bus company (or sat nav) can hold their hands and take them exactly to where they tell it they want to go, it's very common for many to have no idea or care themselves as to the basic details of the location or journey.

It's the modern equivalent of when shop assistants with the old manual cash registers would sometimes ring up your loaf of bread and pint of milk and say "That's £122.36, please" - because that's what the till told them and it didn't enter their heads that they might have caught the wrong button or something had malfunctioned.

I tend to respond with short sentences such as "FFS" and "JFGI" while rolling my eyes heavenward.

Had to sit on my hands when someone on our local board asked about local hamster 'breaders' - veeeery tempted to say I had a battered one I could offer.

My friend would use a travel agent, if she were going to a place she’s never been before. She only goes to the same place on holiday every year so for a new trip she would just trust other people to tell her the nice places instead of looking them up herself. She’s not very culturally aware so organised day trips would suit her, where she feels safe and doesn’t need to look at a map or talk to people she doesn’t know

[quote MilerVino]This thread has reminded me that many FB users don't actually realise they are using the internet. It's possible that people on FB genuinely just don't get their heads around the fact that the same tool that allows them to access FB will get them onto search sites. qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre-using-the-internet/[/quote]
I think that is very true. Because they access Facebook through an app they have no idea they are online.

Its laziness and being thick. So annoying.