Despite the fact that we have infinite knowledge at our fingertips with the internet, it appears that being online has only made some of us dumber. Or it has at least allowed us to showcase our stupidity in front of more people than ever before! We took a trip to the I Am Very Smart subreddit and gathered some of their most hilarious posts down below. Enjoy scrolling through these examples of people believing they’re much smarter than they actually are, and keep reading to find a conversation with Scott Carter, CMHC! “I find that most people aren’t nearly as aware or conscious of their own actions or behaviors as they ought to be,” Scott shared. “They assert themselves as experts, partially because they’re failing to exercise sufficient enough awareness to realize that they aren’t an expert, but it’s more than a lack of awareness. It goes well beyond that.” “Humans can easily be pulled into their own individual ego’s need for superiority. People are always looking for ways to be better or look better than other people, but it’s all rooted in the insecurities that they aren’t willing to acknowledge,” the therapist continued. “It might seem like the solution to insecurity and inferiority is for others to view us as smart or having expertise but again, it’s a misnomer. When you speak as an expert to things that you know nothing about, you only deepen your own inferiority because you’re creating a greater dissonance between what you think you know or making it look like you know versus what you actually do know.” “It’s not necessarily that they think they’re an expert, it’s that their lack of awareness prevents them from seeing that they should probably just say nothing. The ability to be anonymous on the internet though really emboldens some people,” Scott added. “The anonymity of the internet is so much safer, it gives people something to run and hide behind when things get messy.” “If you remove accountability and consequences, it emboldens people to do some really nasty things and there isn’t much nastier than deception. They are seeking status, and they are sometimes willing to say or do whatever is necessary to get there.” “When the conflict in Israel popped up recently, I saw a meme that said, ‘I’m no longer an expert on Ukraine because now I’m an expert about Israel,’ which I thought was incredibly accurate,” he continued. “I have no doubt that many of the people who have been vocal about these issues could find these places on a map. But everything that I’ve suggested so far still requires some awareness and insight which has become a rare and precious commodity these days. We first have to ask people to look at themselves, honestly, in the mirror.” “The bottom line piece of advice is simply this: For people to practice their own awareness and be honest with themselves,” the therapist noted. “Become more conscious and more aware of your actions, don’t just mindlessly do whatever and don’t just follow any and every impulse that pops up. Learn how to be more intentional and deliberate about your actions and learn to ask yourself the hard questions. ‘Am I one of those people? Should I take a step back here? Do I really know what I’m talking about?’” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
