Falling Stars

With the invention of facebook's "Question" function, I fear for the future of the inquisitive world. Much of research today has turned its head towards the world wide web. Most research assignments in college require that you have at least one internet siting on your bibliography amongst the required encyclopedias and hard copy research studies. However, even for those classes which require us to 'surf' the internet, instructors firmly remind us before our projects begin that those internet sources must be reputable ones. For example, world renown Medical and Psychiatric Journals or websites from industries at the forefront of research and procedures when it comes to the sciences, agriculture, etc. Even government sources because they have many experts who have participated in conducting their studies and writing up their thoroughly sought-out findings. While the question function will allow people to ask questions who might not have felt comfortable seeking out information before, but how will they learn to really get down to the nitty-gritty of it all? They'll be able to ask a question, but how will they learn to separate the fact from fiction? When you pose a question on facebook, are people going to say, "These are my credentials," so that we can more accurate in judging the merits of their commentary? Maybe, maybe not. I'm guessing many of the respondents obtain their information from "hearing it somewhere from someone a few years back" and they've never done the back research, or their friends of whoever asked the question. We're inclined to trust our friends and their knowledge, but does our loyalty make their statements correct? Who knows? I only hope that the people in the world will continue to seek out good information and fight for the accuracy and truth of it all. It's like statistics--in all information/data there is a margin of error. How great a margin are we willing to accept?