forum for week of 26 September: skepticism

I think the reason that the general public is prone to philosophical skepticism is because of the ease to access information in the 21st century. Prior to the invention of the computer and the Internet, few people could access information about how certain things worked. For example, only a few group of elites had access to information such as how the solar system worked in the beginning of the 20th century, whereas now even a 5 year-old will probably know more about it than people in the past. Because more and more people can access these information, they start to doubt the authenticity of them. In the past, few people bothered to know why something is the way it is, and instead just relied on the information that were available to them (mostly through people around them). If one is exposed to these information for a long time, they will firmly believe it even though they have no idea why it is so. On the other hand, nowadays, the information and ideas that people are exposed to are constantly changing due to the availability of information; people's "beliefs" about one subject changes before they are exposed to them long enough. Hence I believe the reason skepticism causes people give in so easily is that since past beliefs have been easily overturned, there is no reason to stand firmly by one's own beliefs but better to just open themselves to new things instead (even though the doubt could most likely be wrong).