I Got My Education From Google: Why I Can’t Stand People Who Think They Know Everything

September 21st, 2012 - By Valerie J Charles

The Internet has to be one of the best inventions to come out of the latter half of the 20th Century. Need a recipe? Google. Want a new hairstyle? Google. Want to see Kim Kardashian wearing furry sandals with leather pants? (Kanye…dude…no) Yeah, you know where this is going. With all the known information of the world just a few keyboard taps and mouse clicks away, we are able to be knowledgeable about anything we choose. Yet, with this positive comes a nuisance — the evolution of the Know-It-All.

The Know-It-All is the person we can expect to come off more informed than they really are. That old Socratic sentiment that a wise man is one who knows that he doesn’t know everything has to be as foreign to them as Aramaic (but I’m sure they’d tell us they dabbled in learning the lost language once). These days such folks are known as Google Scholars. They draw up a Wikipedia page, read the introductory paragraph and crown themselves an expert on the matter at hand.

Don’t ever bother trying to tell a Know-It-All that some of the things they think they know so well, they don’t know at all. How dare you try to make them appear to be less than they really are? They don’t know that its okay to be corrected, to learn something new, to try to understand that what they could have read or learned was outdated or not detailed enough. How do you cope with someone who is not willing to cop to a mistake?

I started noticing this little phenomenon with my increasing use of social media. I started to realize that there would be people who always had some “facts” that they would want to drop in a discussion. At first, I was really impressed by these types, and felt intellectually inferior to them. They seemed so well-versed in everything imaginable. Science, art, pop culture, hidden gems of history. And then one day, someone used the term “Google Scholar” with me, and my little bubble was depleted. And after finding that some were quoting sites like Wikipedia verbatim in their lectures, I could not help but laugh that someone would go to such extremes just to come off to be more than they are.

I’ve learned that it is best to deal with these types of people in small doses. Just as I am not situated to comprehend the basic contents of physics (no thanks to my college professor), I am not well equipped to deal with those who think that they know everything there is to know; those who are so unhappy with who they are that they attempt to take on airs of superiority by putting on airs. That kind of arrogance is simply not my cup of tea. Give me friends who know that they do not know everything. Who do not seek to impress all they meet with their infinite well of consciousness. After all, its the continuance of schooling, the deprogramming and reprogramming of ourselves that gives this mad thing called life its mystery and openness.

So, tell us readers: How do you deal with the Know-It-Alls?

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  • DoinMe

    I don’t think Google makes people smarter at all. In fact, I think it has the opposite effect. There’s way too much information on the internet and anybody can say anything (like on Wikipedia) and people take it as “facts” when that’s not always the case. Discernment and knowing where reliable sources are are key, otherwise, people come off as crazy or misinformed.

  • DoinMe

    I don’t think Google makes people smarter at all. In fact, I think it has the opposite effect. There’s way too much information on the internet and anybody can say anything (like on Wikipedia) and people take it as “facts” when that’s not always the case. Discernment and knowing where reliable sources are are key, otherwise, people come off as crazy or misinformed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.f.vorhees Jason Fangz Vorhees

    Well look at it like this….if you get it from google, wikipedia, or a book you read…..its all someone elses information that you are reading. With that being said i dont think anything is wrong with using the internet for quick info. Im not going to go check out a book to find out that a polar bear skin isnt white. Im going to google it.

  • get real

    Funny. When I’m on other websites schooling white people on history, politics and other social stuff, when backed into a corner (before calling me the N word or something lol) their sources was always a wikipedia link. Lol. Now I’m flowing from books that I’ve read from scholars and educators and they post a wiki link.

    • realadulttalk

      I have no respect for those quoting Wiki…gimme 10 minutes and I too can create a page full of MY facts.

  • realadulttalk

    I think a lack of maturity makes people think they know everything. At this point in my life–I pretty much learn something new everyday. Whether that be book knowledge or just life knowledge – I am overjoyed at this time to have my eyes and ears open to learn some of the things I would have sworn I knew a decade ago.

    • anon

      “maturity” – that must be the key in all of this. But with so many poor examples of this in many of today’s in adults, it’s no wonder people take this type of approach to self-education… They just don’t know.

  • http://twitter.com/MzRaeBaby313 One and Only MzRae

    you don’t have to have a formal education to be educated…..anything you can learn in school you can learn on the internet….I know more than some of my friends with college degrees due to being a self-learner….if you have a thirst for knowledge, why wouldn’t you use the tools available to us now?

  • anon

    “those who are so unhappy with who they are that they attempt to take on airs of superiority by putting on airs.”

    Those types of people existed before Google. And yes, some of them are college educated.

    • kate

      “those who are so unhappy with who they are that they attempt to take on airs of superiority by putting on airs.”

      That may be the case for a few, but I m e e t a lot of people who are thirsty for knowledge, and are happy to m e e t others to share and debate what they have learned. My problem they don’t have it together period let alone outside of google/inet. None the less i’m happy to see so many people thirsty to learn whatever it is….that’s a good sign.We seem to have been deprived of knowledge, so maybe it was never people didn’t want to learn they had no direction, or never had the tools needed. Which is why i’m hoping people will began to advance and step outside of online

      • anon

        Online makes information accessible. If accessibility has been the problem, then maybe more a expanded body of knowledge/information, should be brought online AND made accessible, or more easily accessible, to the masses.

        • kate

          I’m more into Information I can trust. You can’t trust a wikipedia page let alone something of importance. It’s mostly half truths on-line !

          • anon

            But, even books have half truths. Consider how our history books have been white washed. Scientific reports have half-truths, and a biased…this has long been true even before the prevalence of the internet. The truth comes in discerning the source, the purpose and the underlying purpose of the information available…even consider the way in which the information is available…

            • kate

              You are dead on with your comment

              “The truth comes in discerning the source” however this is something your internet professors know nothing about ! I think if most understand this they will be well on their way.

      • anon

        I have definitely been guilty, though, of being a Google Scholar. LOL.

        • mac

          lol! right? But I use Google to verify my facts before I speak, not as the source of my facts

  • kate

    For some odd reason I try not to use google//inet for topics of importance. Me and my husband argue all the time. He’s p r e t t y intelligent so I have a tendency to ask questions while at my computer screen. His response is always ” the answers are at the tips of your fingers”. I always respond I don’t like google, and he can’t understand why. Maybe I don’t either, but ” it’s something about it”. Here lately I’ve been doing more going to the library, and using others techniques that were use before this day and age of the i-net.

    I have no problem with a know it all. As a good listener I can listen for days, lol, yawn, maybe even feed off into what ever it is..however I do have a problem with people who lecture can not expand outside of what’s online/google. I have seen a lot of what the internet has to offer, and once again like google to ” me it’s something about it ” everyone has the same story, can’t go above and beyond…it’s too collective for me. Now that’s my new age problem !

    • anon

      I’m a student, right now, taking a writing and research class…which is steering me clear away from Google and forcing me to become more discerning and responsible in my research, and the type of information I even begin to consider. As a matter of fact, we’re on the chapter about how to properly support your claims and organize your argument…I’m reading this stuff going “What a fool I’ve been.”

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