4.7 Conclusion
We understand if you’re feeling overwhelmed at the end of this chapter. Searching for voices that are obscured or hidden by broader systems of power takes time, intention, and practice. There’s no perfect formula for doing it ‘right’, and it’s normal to feel uncertain or even frustrated along the way.
In the past, students have also voiced valid concerns over using certain tools for their knowledge justice work. Platforms like TikTok, ChatGPT, and Google are run by systems of corporate power that don’t have our best interests in mind. Our response to this concern is that two truths can exist at once: social media can be a useful place to find examples of lived experience; and, the platforms themselves are exploitative and harmful. Remember that using tools like social media and AI isn’t a requirement of knowledge justice work.
At the same time, we hope this resource has revealed that the problems that plague social media are not unique. As we continue exploring in Chapter 5, academic publishing is also dominated by powerful companies charging exorbitant fees for access to publicly funded research, locking knowledge behind paywalls, and profiting from the unpaid labour of scholars (The Conversation, 2025 
).
So where does that leave us? In short: we need to slow down and learn to navigate these complex systems with care and a critical lens. We may not be able to opt out of them entirely, but we can question them, find ways to navigate them strategically, and look beyond them to seek out the voices they obscure.
Our next chapter will focus on evaluating the knowledge you find, acknowledging that different sources are created with different goals, values, and levels of trustworthiness. We’ll discuss some of the major concerns we’ve heard from students in the past: how much of each type of evidence do I need? And how do I assess information that was intentionally created to mislead? We’ll also encourage you to start evaluating what you’ve found not just as standalone sources, but as a thoughtfully curated collection of evidence.
