There is no doubt in my mind the internet is a great source of information for everything you can think of looking up. When I hit up youtube for my daily research rounds im often horrified by the misinformation and lack of safety I see people promoting For preparing and survival.

Hitting up a video suggested by davestep I noticed some video in the suggestions. It stated "More stuff other youtube prepers do not want widly known". Well interested I hit it up and found it useless but also noticed another video of this users in the suggestions.

"Oxygen absorbers, There dirty little secret exposed "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Wvp01IiLs&feature=relmfu

I Know little of handwarmers and their actual contents are but I wouldnt trust a man that can barely speak his first language with chemistry. Atleast not enough to throw rusty hunks of iron into my food buckets.

Btw Side note Does anyone else put themselves threw the pain of watching horrible youtube videos to learn what not to do and what people may be watching so you can prep yourself on how to warn them or tell them why it is wrong or improper when they ask you about it?

If you're worried about videos like that, you must have a migraine. That's one of the more intelligent videos on Youtube. I said on Youtube.

Speaking of Youtube, I saw this video today that's somewhat related to survival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCwTW5HNE_A&feature=player_embedded

It's one of the most beneficial Youtube videos I've seen in awhile. Of course, it has less than 500 views after being there for several months. Most people would rather view guys getting kicked in the nuts and stuff like that.

The greatest thing about the internet is that it is a highly diverse, rapidly changing source of information open to everyone.

The worst thing about the internet is that it is a highly diverse, rapidly changing source of information open to everyone.

It's a jungle out there, Jane. You have got to keep your eyes open and learn to discriminate.

A few years ago I had to deal with prostate cancer. I found a lot of sites with basically good information, along with a few that claimed that a full cure could be achieved by eating organic vegetables and thinking positive thoughts. I also consulted sources other than the internet - it doesn't contain everything - yet.

I tend to avoid videos. A person who can't take the time to write what they mean in simple declarative sentences is also more likely to have taken shortcuts on getting their facts right. In my experience the act of writing helps a person organize their thoughts.

Videos are also, IMO, inefficient. Using a dial-up connection it may take hours to download a video. Even the watching is wasteful when a ten minute video has material that could have been better explained in three paragraphs that would take less than a minute to read.

Asking for advice on the internet is much like standing in busy mall and asking advice. You get good, bad, and often completely irrelevant advice.

My pet peeve is neither good or bad information, but rather anti-information. This is usually phrased in passive-aggressive terms, often as skepticism or 'just asking questions'. The main trait of anti-information is that it does not criticize a narrative or set of fact and offer instead an alternative version. Instead it criticizes, often nit-picking facts that they do not understand, but offering nothing as an alternative. I call this anti-information because the longer you expose yourself to it the less you know. Often the practitioners, while claiming to advance knowledge through skepticism, advance ignorance to the point of nihilism.

Of course at some point it becomes clear that there are not enough hours in the day to correct everyone who is wrong on the internet:

http://xkcd.com/386/

What annoys me the most is obvious misinformation copied and recopied and copied a few hundred more time. Then, when people read the same thing over and over (and they don't seem to notice it's EXACTLY the same article), they take it as the gospel truth.

The internet is so anonymous that anyone can say anything without repercussions.

Sue

I wouldn't trust my life to these videos
There are even kids displaying their GHBs ( although some deserve two thumbs up for their great work ) so take what you see FWIW. I do watch many of these , but use them collectively. I mean you take the sunm or average of what you see in 20-30 of them. Some are good , and some are not.

There is a good side to watching them. Some just list gear. Some introduce ideas. Some are really really to the point ( like survivalanlaytical ). Some take a different approach like carrying the BOB and testing himself.

So, look at 20-30 vids, and squeeze the juice out of them collectively.

BTW, I have seen a number of this guy (dsarti1)'s videos, and I see his vids from a humourous angle, not informative side. If that was your impression about his (oxygen absorbers) video, then please look at his vid "shaving a pregnant goat's backside to prepare her for birth " .. hahahaha .. You will see what I mean.

I have noticed Alot of awful survivalkit GHB Bug out bag videos aswell Chisel. The 13 year old kids using their parents junk drawer are bad. The 30+ year old men showing their own junk drawer as a survival kit are worse. I can tell you this from what i have learned from these, Birthday candles, rubber bands and paper clips a survival kit does not make.

The worst vids i ever seen are the ones where they state "Good for multiple purposes" for every single item they show. The worst videos almost always have the same exact phrases pepperd into them.

Sometimes videos are better than plain text or pictures. For instance I learned survival floating from this very useful Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMeierw40nQ . Of course I tried it as soon as I hit the pool and I keep practicing it quite often. It's very effective (and efficient) technique.

As always, art_in_fl is full of surprises.

I'll abstain from arguing the merits of video vs. text as an instructional medium, but i really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the 'get off my lawn' take on youtube et al. ( not meant as an insult, please take this in the gentlest way possible ) and the reference to xkcd.com; which is a favorite of the the uber-geek/slashdot crowd.

The internet is just like every other source of information, you need to not just listen, read or watch, you need to think, analyze and weigh everything against what you already know. Even ETS has it's share of questionable advice!

I have to respectfully disagree with you Art. A video isn't necessarily a shortcut. A good video is experiential. A good video shows you what the words mean, and some of us learn better that way. There are three ways to learn: reading/listening, watching, and doing. In my experience, using all three sequentially works best. Read, watch, and then try. Reading, or even listening, doesn't always make it clear or memorable. Sometimes, experiential learning is best. (Although, as a former technical writer, I must agree that the quality of writing is crucial.)

IMO, the problem is not with with media chosen (e.g. video or written, public/office presentation) but with the quality of the presentation. That quality is directly related to the skill, training and preparation time of the presenter.

You can't just turn the video camera on and start rambling. I've seen videos from so-called experts that I cannot bear to watch because the actual information content per minute is near zero. Same with some written reviews. Poorly done work produces poor results in any media.

But with some thought and prior preparation, a video can be very useful, especially when describing, for example, assembly/dis-assembly of something.

There are good informational videos and bad informational videos. The unfortunate fact is that the good ones are few and far between. Part of this has to do with the fact that good presentations are usually the result of thoroughly understanding the subject, planning ahead, scripting the message, and a certain amount of rehearsal. The lack of any, or all, the above usually shows in the final product.

Some of my disinclination toward videos has to do with my being on a dial-up connection where a minute of video may take better than half an hour to download. During this time the download process slows my web browsing. I can't count the times I've invested the time and bandwidth on a video and been deeply disappointed by some half-informed rube blather on. It wouldn't be all bad if it was just entertainment. But for actual reliable information it is usually an abysmal failure.

They aren't often survival related but may of the videos I downloaded and felt good about the time and bandwidth invested were TED talks:

http://www.ted.com/talks

The principle is that you find someone with expertise and an interesting message and give them about ten minutes to explain ground it took years for them to cover. The forced brevity, combined with a need to cover a concept in a well-rounded way, requires a well focused and lively presentation.

If more of them were like TED talks I'd feel better about the typical You-tube fare.

Now that I can relate to. I'm spoiled by high-speed. Dial-up drives me nuts, especially when you wait patiently for a download that turns out to be crap.

That's an actual consideration as my husband and I consider moving to a more rural area.

I dont think of it as being spoiled these days. I have not visited a site that wasnt 90% animated flash or java that wont load quickly even on my broadband. The internet has changed and moved on passed dial up. Pictures are in HD full size with little to no editing for file size, videos on youtube are maximum allowed 2.5 gigs now if Im not mistaken Music alone is roughly 1MB per minute! None of this is viable threw Dialup these days and yes I know people manage to do it still and in fact I know someone in person who does just this.

http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm


Just look at how that is compared to websites today! The pictures are what we consider thumbnails now!

I hear ya man, but at some point you've got to move along with the technology or accept being left behind. You can't blame people for leveraging technology that is widely and cheaply available. If not for this progression, we'd still be living in the dirt and dying at around 40 years old.