A TikToker's storytime video about ending a friendship with a MAGA supporter over confirmation bias has drawn nearly 300,000 views on TikTok and sparked a broader debate on Reddit about how people research information
A TikToker by the name ‘Nick Pringles,’ who goes by ‘original_pringles,’ did a story time video recalling the moment he knew his friendship with a MAGA supporter was over. It was an ordinary day for both of them, listening to the 2016 hit No Problem by Chance the Rapper.
He specified the incident happened in 2016, around the time the song came out.
He googled the lyric, took a screenshot of the results and sent it to his friend. The MAGA friend had a completely different response.
@orginal_pringles This was in 2016, back when everyone was doing the dab motion. He would do the motion with his arms while insisting that’s what Chance the Rapper and god were doing. I realize a dab is also a way to smoke; that’s not what he thought the song was referring to.
♬ original sound - Nick Pringle
Apparently, the individual googled that particular lyric, posted it on the internet to allegedly find another person who was wrong about the lyric’s meaning. Next, the friend shared a screenshot of that response to the TikToker to allegedly prove the TikToker’s interpretation of the song wrong.
The TikToker noted, “It’s this confirmation bias that they look for…They don’t just Google what’s the answer to this question? They Google the answer that they’re looking for.” The TikToker alleged that instead of looking up facts, they stick to factually incorrect information.
The flat-earth analogy, he said, illustrated how people can use the internet to reinforce incorrect beliefs rather than challenge them. The TikToker mentioned, “You’re just googling what you already think and find other wrong people.”
He argued that this method of searching for confirmation rather than information was how people ended up in echo chambers. The TikToker also claimed that individuals like his MAGA friend only cared about what they believed in and not the truth of a matter.
On TikTok, many called it an “eye-opening” observation. Redditors shared similar sentiments and shared how they research information.
The Internet Shared How They Research Information After TikToker Cut Off MAGA Friend
The video was shared on Reddit where it drew 34,000 upvotes and more than 1,700 comments.
It has amassed 34K upvotes and sparked 1.7K comments on the platform. Many shared the TikToker’s thoughts and agreed, while others had conflicting views.
A user explained, “What’s worse is that some of them know those aren’t the lyrics to the song, and they know to Google the wrong answer specifically to avoid contrary evidence and to win the argument despite being wrong.”
Another added, “They don’t care about the truth; they only care about winning.” One more user brought up the MAGA leader, President Donald Trump’s actions. The Redditor stated, “It kinda ties into their mechanism of always excusing Trump, whatever he does.”
A fourth user on Reddit cautioned, “This is correct…However, it is critical that everyone double and triple-check their stuff because every single one of us falls victim to confirmation bias at one point or another.
One commenter summed up the thread's prevailing sentiment, writing,, “The internet opened a world of information to use, and a large portion of humanity uses it to find an echo chamber instead of admitting they might be wrong about something.”
