Finding advice online can be a tricky thing. Do you believe what you’re reading or do you keep going until you find something more credible?
Either way it can be hard. You go online searching for the latest DIY projects or a tutorial and you find this great breakdown on how to do it.
But now you have to decide if it really is as great of an idea as you think it is.
To get a better view on what Keene State College thinks of online advice, a few students were interviewed about their experiences.
Kate Biron, a fifth-year graphic design student at KSC said the best advice and support she’s gotten from online was when she came out as bisexual.
“I could hear from other people and their experiences,” Biron said.
Sarah Morrison/ Equinox Staff
Biron also agreed that not all advice online can be helpful, “I thought I was self-diagnosing myself and finding out how to treat a pulled muscle on WebMD because I hate going to the doctors.”
WebMD is an online site used to look up symptoms of an illness and it gives you a basic diagnosis.
Biron continued, “I did everything for a pulled muscle but it turned out to be a blood clot up my leg and everything you do for a pulled muscle is the opposite of what you should do for a blood clot. The clot ended up extending up my entire right leg.”
Biron recommended that when someone is looking for advice that they use a credible source, a site that has multiple sources.
Not all online advice is horrible though. KSC junior and computer science major Tanner Black’s favorite online advice site is reddit.
Black said there is a lot of emotional support columns on reddit. He warned that you have to make sure you watch out for a “troll” on the internet though. Troll is often used in reference to people online causing unnecessary havoc.
KSC sophomore and a Elementary Education student Laura Beltz , said she looks for online advice about crafting.
Beltz said she loves to create “Do It Yourself” projects. “Good advice for DIY projects is when it is clear on the instructions and the materials are easy to find, bad advice is when it’s not thought out and doesn’t have clear instructions,” Beltz said.
Beltz said that Youtube and Pinterest are some of the sites she uses for her DIY crafts.
Beltz said that Youtube can show you exactly how to do the craft and it’s easier to see if it’s actually worth crafting, while Pinterest can falsely show instructions and make crafts seem easier than they really are.
Some points to remember when searching the web for advice is to look for sites with credibility; sites that offer what you’re looking for and have multiple sources. Don’t google illnesses online.
Otherwise you could end up making it worse or thinking it’s worse than it is.
But lastly use common sense when using the internet, after all not everything you read on the internet is true.
Heather Fougere can be contacted at hfougere@kscequinox.com
