I was first introduced to the Flat Earth Society about 3 or 4 years ago. As I was scrolling through Instagram, a certain post caught my eye. It was a post about flat earth. Although I had been told years ago at school that certain people used to believe in this theory centuries ago, I did not expect that this theory was still believed by people in the 21st century. I had the same reaction as the majority of people who find out about this society; I thought that those people were ridiculous and stupid. My interaction with flat-earthers, however, did not end there. I noticed that the account that posted that picture was one that was dedicated on proving the flat earth. Being curious, I decided to look at the other posts of that account. That account led me to other accounts, all of which led me to other accounts. I spent a considerable amount of my time looking at those accounts. My attitude to the flat earth theory changed a lot through the days. I started off laughing at the ridiculousness of the claims, but days later I would be shocked to realize that I couldn’t actually answer certain questions they posed.
     I started to realize that the flat earth theory is vastly misunderstood by the majority. And there are many misconceptions about the society as well. For example, I used to think that the flat earth was a theory that was believed by the majority of people up until Columbus reached the Americas. But later I had learned that people knew since at least Ancient Greece that the Earth was not flat. And I learned that Columbus wasn’t even the first person to reach the Americas, and in fact he was centuries late for that. A 12-year-old me was shocked to know that there’s so many lies I believed about the world and its history. Because of that, I gave some sort of credibility to what the flat-earth believers said. Instead of just ignoring and making fun of their claims, I would actually try my best to prove their claims wrong.
     If I learned anything during that short period of my life, it is that each person should make their own research, rather than believing everything that is told. In fact, that’s a recurring theme that can be seen across all of those online pages about flat earth; they all say to “do your own research.” Although I did not end up changing my mind about the shape of Earth, I still found my interactions with the flat-earth believers to be somewhat productive, as it developed my debating skills, as well as my ability to prove a certain claim through logical reasoning. I even came up with my own personal way to disprove the Flat Earth Theory. And it changed me because I learned to look at the other person's perspective before ridiculing them about certain beliefs. They have a solid point when they say that one should do their own research and not just believe what everyone else says, but I do believe that they have taken it too far when talking about the flat Earth.