Is Anything on the Internet Real?

CGP Grey's adventure into searching for the origin of the name Tiffany is a real illustration in the way wrong or poor information can persist, be copied, and become "truth" if left unchallenged long enough.

I tried to cover this information in a series on missinformation, but I must say you did SO much better. Equating the art of the pause to a superpower is something I’ll be using. I like your concept of keeping the pause detector running quietly in the background. Thanks Henry.

Honestly, the colors of the fireworks give it away more than anything.

Excellent! As a life-long skeptic I've noticed that "skeptic" has taken on a negative feel. This is so much softer and more inviting! This is definitely getting forwarded to all my friends... Oh, wait....

The worst part is when you tell someone it's fake, they usually come back with "Aw, it's no big deal, it's just for fun" or "Just enjoy things for once without analyzing them to death."

What a nice take on the uncertainty of information we are living today, and a very indirect but inspiring call to action. Video worth sharing

The book thinking fast and slow is a great addon to this that really expands on a similar idea

From what I can tell, Shakespeare came up with eye of newt. There's no references to it from any contemporaries, even using alternative spellings such as neuft or nefet. Where as all the other items in that wich's brew are animal too, no banes, florals or any other botanical nicknames; just animal parts. You'd think if Billy S. was making a vegan potion he'd have used at least one other known herb.

Thank you. It's very frustrating to me how the "age of information" is really more like the age of misinformation.

I really liked this video, which reminded me to "stop to think for yourself." Then I saw the sponsor, which reminded me "it's perfect not to have to stop and think about what charities are best to donate" and then I had to stop and think about that...

It's funny you posted this today. Just this weekend I was talking with a friend about how sometime last week I got this horrible feeling that I was a "know it all", but realized that I just actually USE the internet. This is how my brain has handled stuff for many years now, and I've always had that "I have the entirety of human knowledge in my pocket" mentality since the first iphone came along, and before that it was "at my fingertips", so I've always been that person who looks things up when I don't know. It seems like a lot of people have either forgotten, or maybe never even realized just how easy it is to take a moment to look something up now that we have such ready access to information. I realized that I'm the opposite of a know-it-all, because I recognize when I don't know, and make the conscious effort to find out, rather than just moving along with the status quo.

This pause, for me, usually happens when I make a claim and then try to find a source to cite it. That is when I'll discover that something I believed was bullshit. While I'd rather not continue to believe bullshit, I guess I can settle for not spreading bullshit. As long as you remember to cite your claims, you'll always pause before you make an asshole of yourself.

3:08 Interesting fact: A factoid is a piece of incorrect information that is repeated very often and widely accepted as fact. So in this case you have just demonstrated that the soap opera thing is, in fact, not a factoid.

I have what I call my "automatic someone-is-trying-to-manipulate-me detector", which is basically pauses like this when something seems like an appeal to emotion etc.

It's weird; I immediately saw the over saturated colors and the weird halos and thought it was one of those old fireworks screensavers. The type of blur each spark has isn't natural, it looks very much like the feathering that most photo editors use.

This was quite a change from your usual videos but it was a refreshing take!

My company has a bot that posts "🐶facts" on our chat app, to ostensibly brighten the day. However, some dog facts were sad dog facts which started to muddy people's day. So I fact checked the dog facts and found 3/4 facts are either wrong or incredibly misleading. My favorite was a dog "fact' that: "Paul McCartney wrote the song 'A Day In The Life' with a whistle at the end of the song only audible to dogs, to the delight of his Shetland sheepdog" Found first the whistle was 15khz, easily audible to most all listeners, who can prove the dog was delighted, Paul McCartney had an old English sheepdog and not Shetland, and that John Lennon wrote the song and not Paul. The only remaining fact was "A Day In The Life has a whistle"

The 3 minutes describing "The Art of The Pause" is actually the best and most incredible way of telling people the difference between being emotional and being rational. This is the secret to being super smart and achieving stoicism and self control. Just pause.

This is why I never have any emotional response to advertisement because my first reaction is to feel manipulated which numbs all potential followup reactions.

This was delivered so well, I love it doesn’t dive too deep into how deep this rabbit hole really goes, it’s a good thing to share with those who might be sensitive to anything that can shake up their views I’ve reached a point where everything going on is giving me pause and I’ve got no idea what to think or who to trust. Genuinely mean that. When I feel like this I usually go with my gut, unfortunately my gut is saying everything is really off. In all honesty, i hate this but I even got pause when I saw the ad for the charity at the end of this video, I’m aware this is more a reflection of me, it made me a little sad, not the advertisement itself, I’m sure it’s nothing but the fact I even react that way is what I find sad. I’ve legit lost all faith and trust in the media so the smallest thing, even if it’s for good , when there’s money involved it automatically triggers a “hmmmm” pause.