What’s the Vibe?

In chapters four and five of Verified by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg, we are introduced to the different methods of researching on the internet. One key aspect of internet searching is that your printed text research skills and methods DO NOT equal the skills and methods needed for digital research. 

With printed research, we often approach the text vertically. We will get the sources and read them vertically all the way through and try to decipher whether the text is credible by looking within the source itself. 

This is not how researching on the internet is done. 

In a digital space you have to shift your vertical viewing to a lateral view. Before you even think of clicking a source and reading about it, you should stop. Go back to the search screen, put in the name of the individual or group in the browser, and look at the new tabs ACROSS the screen. Remember to analyze the tabs and other pages by using the SIFT method, but even before that get the gestalt. 

The what? What the heck is a gestalt?

You know, like the vibe? No… okay, sorry. 

Get the vibe of the search results. What is the group of results trying to tell you? Are they all in support of a search? Or are they opposed to something? What are the vibes? 

By getting the vibe, you can next practice click restraint. Which is simply looking into neighboring searches and taking a stroll/ scroll down the results. Basically, don’t click, just look.

When you go on a walk you aren’t busting into the homes that look nice… or at least I hope you aren’t. Same applies for click restraint, look at the pretty results, but don’t click or go inside. The key to this is to take in the FULL set of results before clicking on a page!! You can learn a lot from the other results. 

Another rule of thumb is to not fall for trust compression. Trust compression is when people or websites shrink the results into looking the same, even when they aren’t. In the book, they make the example of asking for the opinions of drivers, and someone tells you they are all bad. Expect they shrink how bad they are, by saying they are all the same. I don’t know about y’all but I would rather be with a driver that talks about their pets nonstop, than a driver that puts my life in danger. 

The basic thing to remember from these two chapters is to read the room of the results. Get the vibe. Ask about other opinions on the matter. Restrain yourself from clicking on the pages (just look). And look out for trust compression. 

I wish y’all luck out there. The internet is a dangerous place, but with these tips, you will be better off not falling for lies.