There is nothing more irritating to me than someone who has read some little blurb on Facebook and has now fashioned themselves an expert on something, usually in the context of sounding informed in an argument.
This happens a lot in parenting groups. People claim "expert status" in everything from car seats, to the safety of various cars, to school options, to nutrition, to sleep, to, well, pretty much everything. Usually, this is to justify whatever they're doing and why they are right and everyone else is wrong.
Homeschooling has been a HUGE one. And I don't want to act like the homeschool parents are the innocent victims. I mean, historically, yes, they've had to defend their choices an awful lot. I've been there, I get it. But I had to leave a conversation because a mom was absolutely slamming anyone who "cared so little about their children that they would decide a public school education was good enough", and posting inflammatory article after article "proving" herself right. She had DONE her research and actually said she considered herself an "educational expert".
Shockingly, she got a lot of comments, but didn't seem to get any converts, despite all the memes and articles she posted.
I've always been a research person. Maybe I'll go with the majority, maybe I won't. But I firmly believe that if you want to feel comfortable with a choice, it's not the validation from others that will do it. It's the fact that you've really looked into whatever you want to know more about.
And honestly, I'd rather know that I can look at my sources, instead of the "something I read on Facebook".
