Study Shows that Not every article that starts with “Study Shows” involves a real Study: The Importance of Mindful Research

To Hold myself accountable, I’d like to mention that I am a freelance Blogger, with no degree in journalism and I have had no editor other than myself look this over. This article serves as an opinion piece, and hopefully a source of comfort from what I like to call “Click Bait Syndrome”. The feeling of self doubt you receive after reading a freelance Blogger’s opinion piece about something you’re not doing right that was represented as an actual research article.

Remember the Wild West? New ideas and rumors of striking gold drew in travelers seeking out their own prosperity. Families from the East Packed up everything to move out into this unknown, unsettled land in search of gold. Not only did several people fall ill and die along the journey, the ones that did arrive had to establish a new society based completely on trial an error.

I’d like to observe that our current age of information and internet entrepreneurship is very much developing in the same way. For the first time ever, even if a major publication doesn’t want anything to do with your writing, you can still put it out there in an even more public forum. And if you’re lucky, you can get enough people reading it that advertisements pay for you to write these freelance pieces from an infinity pool in Bali. I personally have not been blessed to win this cosmic lottery, although there’s still time.

With this in mind, freelance bloggers know about the important topics of our time and hope to report on this so you the reader continues to be engaged. The more Viewers, the more chances us bloggers have at getting paid to write. Complicated topics such as mental health, plant based and other specialty diets, gender equality, holistic medicine, ending racism, politics are common all across the blogging world, and the majority of bloggers aren’t experts in this fields. Most bloggers will do their best to research before hand so they don’t spread any misinformation, But more often than not the sources they’re getting their information from is other freelance bloggers writing opinion pieces, just like this one.

To become a mental health professional and give sound advice on stress relief it takes at the very least a bachelors degree, if you want to be a clinical psychologist it takes your PH.d. Yet somewhere down the line Taking a great Vacation that changes your perception in a positive way became all the credibility you need to write a blog post and title it “Study Shows people that Travel are Happier”. To assume you know enough about your own mental health that you know beyond a reasonable doubt that a feel good experience fixed you, and then to preach it as gospel is a dangerous thing.

Readers are now bombarded with medical research and advice that isn’t actually backed by sanctioned studies, and it forces you to look at your normal, perfectly acceptable life with fear that because you’re not blogging in an infinity pool in Bali that you’re not practicing self care, or that you’re not living your best life.

I still advocate for reading and supporting blogs. We become more connected and compassionate as humans when we take the time to read about other people’s experiences and how they’ve learned and grown. But keep in mind that one person’s experience is not gospel or fact. Read as yourself, take what you need from a good blog post but remember that even case studies have variances. Do your own research on how to live your best life!