The I Know It All Phenomenon

Recently I've engaged in some interesting parenting related conversations with my friends and after each one, I sat wondering when is it appropriate to go against the advice of a trained professional?  It seems like we have more access than we have ever had to information on every imaginable topic- mostly due to the ever increasing number of blogs and webpages.  I'm not sure that we have more or better access to credible sources on many topics, though.  To be transparent, I define credible as peer reviewed journal articles and publications that follow professional journalism standards.  Either way, it seems that it is easy to back up just about any possible opinion with something found on the internet.

A few weeks ago, I posted about the anti vaccine movement and how I had yet to see a peer reviewed journal article that supported non vaccination.  Today, I read a very interesting blog post about the natural birth movement and how there is a new reality show showing women giving birth completely unassisted.  The article went on to point out that being able to have a natural birth is a privilege and we are forgetting that before the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a very low percentage of women had paid prenatal and maternity care.  The author went on to suggest that our focus should be on lowering our maternal and fetal mortality rate vs. pushing for births that are medically unassisted.

It struck me today that the underlying theme with both discussions was that for a segment of our population, being educated on a subject and self advocacy have reached a new level where there is little regard for the professional training and expertise of the care provider(s).  I'm all for both, however, I've always felt that there was a limitation to my level of expertise on anything medically related seeing that my degrees are not in a medical field.  I certainly feel that I can ask intelligent questions and seek out other opinions on any topic, but at some point, I will follow the thinking of my care provider or mechanic or whomever the expert happens to be in that case.  So I arrived at the question- why is it that some people feel that they can completely ignore the experts?  And to take the question a step further- why is it that not only do some people completely ignore the experts, but they also go on a crusade to try to "educate" those around them with opinion based information that can't be backed up by a credible source?

I'm intrigued by this way of thinking as it is potentially harmful- both to the person and their family, but also to our communities, in some cases.  Is this a form of free speech and individualism gone too far?  Or is it driven by something else?  I certainly will take a moment of pause and try to discern where the line should be for me.  I certainly implore others to do the same as we can't all be experts on everything and we aren't always right.  I feel like we've lost the art of thoughtful and respectful debate and inquiry.  It seems like it is time to bring both back!