By Caleb Keith –

I have a problem and need your help. You see, like most other people in my generation, and perhaps even those outside of my generation, I am dependent on the internet. More specifically, I am dependent on the Google search engine. This dependence is a gut reaction and a tool that feeds a general skepticism about the things I know and the knowledge passed onto me by parents, advisors, and even experts. I only recently became aware of my addiction because I happen to be a young parent whose own parents live nearby.

As a young parent, there are an infinite amount of things I do not know nor understand about raising a child. When I find myself in a moment of ignorance, I immediately pull out my phone or open my computer in order to Google the answers to all my problems. For example, this week, my wife and I introduced rice cereal to our daughter, who up until now has only consumed breast milk. We did this only after an extensive Google search about how, what, and when to introduce real food to a baby. What is ridiculous about this search is that, not one day earlier, both my parents, who have had three children of their own, and my grandmother, who has been a nurse for over thirty years, suggested we introduce food earlier that week. I doubted experienced advice over an anonymously written web article. How stupid is that?

As a people, we are losing our sense of trust in ourselves and those we personally know in favor of unknown authors validated by a search algorithm. That algorithm is not a filter for truth but a collection of keywords and phrases. I want to stop trusting the almighty search engine and start trusting my elders, teachers, and even books again. It’s time to stop searching and start asking.