Why do we believe/follow/listen to some random podcaster/youtuber (and often we don't even look at their credentials) BUT tend to mock/make-fun/put-down our family or friend's suggestions.
I do it too..
Damn thats a good question. I think its because we are social animals, and if someone is appearing in your feed (random podcaster/youtuber), we assume they have ethos or authority because "other people" watched it, commented, liked, first.
That being said, we can all strive to be kinder to our family and friends, me included
I don't know
Couldn't give you a good answer to this - I follow Brandon Herrera, but he truly knows the subject matter of his videos. In general 'm skeptical of most youtubers until I see that they actually do understand their subject matter as well.
I might be in the minority, but I’m very selective about who I follow, watch and listen to. Even some sources that seem legit have biases and/or a lack of credentials. I’ve been on YouTube since the early days, over 20 years, but I think I only follow maybe 25 YouTubers? Most of them have degrees or other credentials.
There’s only like 4 or 5 podcasts that I regularly listen to and same thing, I want genuine sources that are relatively unbiased.
A lot of clips and stuff online are just junk. AI generated, echo chamber, outrage junk or clickbait. I ignore most of it.
But going back to family and friends, what necessarily makes them more educated, that their opinions are always right? I’m a skeptic by nature and I’ve seen too many people get burned for trusting family/friends who have them bad advice. Maybe it’s just my trust issues, but I don’t trust anyone. Especially not someone random, without doing some research first.
As you mentioned in another post, attention spans are shrinking. If people see/listen to a clip that enrages them OR that echoes their belief, they often get sucked in.
Comment sections online are usually a hellscape, but there’s an interesting phenomenon. Many viral clips that are fake, AI or otherwise bogus, often get spread without people taking two seconds to fact check. If I see a wild claim made in a clip, I’ll either do a little research or simply open the comment section. It’s crazy how many times an outrage video is easily debunked in the comment section, yet most people don’t even bother to take a second to consider if the content is actually true or valid.
That's a great question because I took care of a man who was prominent around the world. He was a developer in builder. He would say I can listen to your advice all day. I was very humbled by that because he lives such an extraordinary life. And then I have another friend who's a doctor and he says I just love your advice and he uses it a lot. But try to give my son any advice and he says mom Shut up. I think the best way to to give advice is the same way we do Cuddles we have to ask for consent. Can I give you advice.?
I've been given lots of good advice over my life. Some of it I use and some of it I don't because sometimes it seems like the advice is hard for me to implement For whatever reason. I'm always thinking man that's good advice for someone who could make it happen.
My sister constantly gives advice about everything and it really is good advice, but it gets annoying. One time her and I were out to dinner and this beautiful meal came, and she said now eat slow. I feel like saying I'm a grown adult. I know how to eat., And nobody appreciates food like I do sometimes I look at my food for 30 seconds before I dig in. I love to savor my food so I was kind of annoyed and I told her that's enough Sue. She just looked at me with white eyes because I usually don't say those things. If she would've thought for a second before she would've said that she would not need to have given me that advice, knowing how much I enjoy food and how much I take my time with it. Sorry this is such a long post, but I really enjoy this topic. One thing I've always wondered is that people read a lot of books about how to raise children but why not ask another mother who did a good job raising her children. And I always think it's funny when people say Don't tell me how to raise my child. I mean, why wouldn't you want advice you've never done it before and there's people that have raised lots of children with much success. And your kids kind of a brat and no one wants to hang around it lol
I lived with a family for a year and I talk to them a lot about healthy eating . And they thanked me for all my advice. They changed their lifestyle and they're much healthier, so sometimes people listen.
Thanks for the great topic.
It is the illusion of not having access to that person that makes us feel like they are greater than us. People that we’ve known our whole life tend to not respect us in the same way as an unattainable person. It’s the lack of self reflection. We are all just shards of broken glass from the same mirror.
@quincyq03 I am glad you are selective on what you consume or who you follow. Smart!
@KozyKim I am happy that people have listened to your advices and they made their lives better. The best takeaway for me from your message is 'Can I give you advice?'. I have to practice it.
I do regret not following one particular advice from one of my ex partner. She insisted me to start investing in real estate/stocks. Never listened. Male ego? or she is way junior to me at work & finances? ..so silly/immature to think like that!
I think if the advice is directed towards us then maybe we feel like attacked? or gets offended? I don't know.
I mean if someone says 'Hey! you need to work out more often' then probably my brain thinks 'Does this person think I am lazy?'
It’s similar to something I noticed years ago with my parents or friends. If a spouse says or warns about something, people tend to ignore it.
If the same thing or very similar is said by a friend or such, people will heed the advice. My conjecture is people judge those too close like a spouse as not knowing or being a nag or similar.
I watch and listen to that stuff for entertainment purposes , not necessarily to gleam wisdom
@consciousseeker my doctor friend asked for my advice, so I don't usually just give it to him. I think because he believes in me, I'm very careful about the advice I give him lol.. it does stink when someone gives you good life-changing advice and you don't do it. I've been there.
A lot of times I think we listen to experts because they've been trained and study and they are not directly making us feel bad for our lack of good choices.
Also, I think @Bear is right sometimes it seems like nagging I remember my husband saying don't put all that crappy stuff from the store on your skin. It's not good for you. Of course I didn't listen until one day I read it at the health food store pamphlet what it does to you and I threw everything out and started it over.
I like to follow people that do carnivore and keto, but I've also seen it work for my friends. They seem happier, more focused and more fit.
I really try not to give advice unless I've seen it work for people personally and a lot of my advice is From trial and error myself.
I do appreciate advice that's delivered gently, that will make me a better person to hang around. I don't wanna be an ass and so if someone sees me acting in a way that's not good. They should call me out on it. I remember my ex-husband saying that I talk too much and that I dominate conversations. But I am an extrovert. So I told him make sure to kick me under the table if I'm carrying on to much. And that really worked I stopped talking and listened more.
I'll never forget I can't remember the conversation, but I was talking with this group of people around a table and they were so quiet and I said what's wrong and they said nothing we're listening. I guess I didn't grow up that way. And they were a bunch of college educated people. So I think sometimes the smart people get smarter by listening to people. And me being just a common folk may have some common sense for those that didn't have the time to figure out the common things because they were too busy studying😬😝🤣
The reasons I find is I don't come with preconceptions and wounds which trigger from tired old patterns with people I know. There is also a certain amount of resistance that comes from people who are close to us.
To the OP’s question… “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
I don't do this. If we are talking about a place like YouTube or odysee, perhaps we could start a list of channels that have good information. If there is anyone who disagrees they can say why and we can maybe all get more accurate information.
Here are a few from me: Civil engineering - Practical engineering Space news - dr Becky Computer hardware - hardware unboxed, gamers Nexus Nuclear information - Kyle Hill, T. Folse nuclear General tech - technology connections Physics - Fermilab Ancient life/animals - PBS eons, animalogic Cosmetics/sunscreen - lab muffin Beauty Science
I have a few others that I watch that I think are high quality information but don't fit into a category Tibees Real engineering Smarter everyday Steve mould EEVblog Curious droid <--- maybe. I only just found this one and haven't had enough time to know for sure, but it looks good so far.
@JasonCuddles agreed. I don't give influencers/strangers more weight - I take everything with a hefty spoon of salt and put more trust in credentials, demonstrable experience, and cited resources. I grew up learning to truly do my own research, utilizing libraries and peer reviewed publications, vetting citations, etc. and that has carried over into the internet age. Just watching a single video or listening to one podcast from a single creator is not enough - I need multiple sources, from multiple voices, with the data to back them up.
It's not about familiarity - it's about expertise, motive , methodology, and ethics. I happen to have friends who are very knowledgeable in certain fields, so I tend to trust their information in those fields. I'm far more likely to trust the opinion of a friend who has studied a topic for decades than I am to trust a content creator who makes a couple videos and then moves on to other topics. Similarly, if a friend is citing non-peer reviewed publications, talking heads, etc. as their sources, I'm far more likely to trust others who can show their work on that topic.
Also, the shout-out for Kyle Hill is spot on! Some others channels I'd add: The Rest Is Science / VSauce / Hannah Fry Astrum (and all its side channels) Kurtzgesagt Veritasium NOVA & Terra (or really any PBS) Osmosis Doctor Mike Mayo Clinic SciShow (all its variations)
Other sites: PubMed Google Scholar Research Gate The Conversation Scholarcy (an AI tool great at accurately summarizing research papers into digestible language. Free to try, but is subscription based. Worth it if you regularly have to go through a lot of heavy reading) Perplexity AI (think ChatGPT, but focused on research, accuracy, and citations)