• PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    You mean a record of collective experience painting a bigger picture about a subject may be more valued than a single anecdotal account?
    Ask a white middle class boomer how was growing up in the American 50s and he might say it was a great time based on his experience… a black person might give a different perspective…

    I believe more often than not a quick Google search may provide more information than someone you are talking to. I’d take a Google search over 99% of what any of my relatives have to say about any subject :P

      • PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 months ago

        I get your point, and I was actually kinda playing devil’s advocate here, I really thought I’d be the one getting downvoted lol

      • FishFace@piefed.social
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        3 months ago

        Ask a person what sex feels like or how should a roux smell - these are not things you can explain in words, whether it’s in an article or in person.

              • FishFace@piefed.social
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                3 months ago

                Right, so you can’t explain it in words. You have to experience it yourself.

                But experiencing things yourself is not what we’re talking about; if you already have the experience, you don’t need to ask Google (or another person) to confirm it. What we’re talking about is, if you want to find about something you don’t already know about, should you go to Google or get an individual’s take on it, given that individual has experienced it themselves.

          • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            You’re describing qualia which are necessarily subjective. These accounts are not helpful whether you get them from Google or anywhere else.

            Anecdotes may be interesting, but on the whole they are not as useful as objective answers.

              • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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                3 months ago

                No?

                If there’s no objective, correct answer to a question then the point is moot. If you’re getting something out of some individual’s subjective answer it’s based on the want to build a relationship or gain understanding of that person which inherently has nothing to do with the question itself.

                That’s fine and all, but not really what I understand your original question to be asking. People have experiences, and those experiences are theirs: they can’t give them to you. If you like hearing about it anyway, cool, but you might as well read a poem.

                Edit: substitute “a book” for “Google” in your question and see how it’s a weird take.

                  • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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                    3 months ago

                    There is value in talking to people, but that has nothing to do with a question or situation you might Google or look up in a book. These are fundamentally different things.

                    Subjective information is inherently less valuable than objective information for trying to learn something unless you are writing a survey paper. If you want to have a chat to combat loneliness or try to better understand your grandmother you’re not answering a question so you wouldn’t look it up anyway. If you’re googling what it feels like to make a roux you are probably not neurotypical.