Why?

One of the things that baffles me (well, Ann and me) is that we have a world of information at our finger-tips and all we have to do to learn about things we know little or nothing about (or simply want to confirm whether our beliefs about any given fact are even remotely accurate) . . . or to conclusively resolve a factual debate (who has hit the most home runs in the major leagues; don’t get me started on the controversy over Pelé’s goals [yes, they counted]), is to run a Google (or other type of) search. Why do people elect to be uninformed?  Of course, one needs to exercise some critical thinking skills with respect to where the factual information comes from and how credible or biased it might be, but often checking multiple reliable sources easily addresses that matter.  The reality is, we rarely have an excuse to be uninformed about important matters.

Anyway, both Ann and I are curious people.  That means we think about things, and ask questions about things, and take the time to look up the answers to questions instead of just assuming that what we think is the case is correct.  Which leads us to today’s post.

Ann posited a question to me the other morning during breakfast and I gave her my partially-informed response, and then stopped.  “A lot of that is old history and, to be honest, I’ve seen the headlines on it but haven’t read any recent articles in depth to see if that’s still what’s going on.  Give me a few minutes to check out what folks are saying about it.”

With that, I opened up a browser and typed in the first word of my Google search . . . and stopped.  This is what it gave me as the most frequently asked, “Why” questions:

My mind exploded.  This was perhaps the most diverse range of Google search suggestions I’ve seen based on a single word.  Are these really the top three searches beginning with the word, “Why?”  Should I be rethinking how I act around Ann?  A zillion (ok, that’s probably an exaggeration) thoughts ran through my head as I sat there looking at the options.  Eventually, I continued on with my research and the conversation with Ann.

And, I must admit, the question I was looking for was one of the three listed as potential Google Search questions.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one I was wanting to become better informed about.