Yes, definitely. But I feel doing research is more associated either with the fringe that is anti-science or academics who are actually doing science and publis

Yes, definitely. But I feel doing research is more associated either with the fringe that is anti-science or academics who are actually doing science and publishing papers. I'm under no illusion that I'm doing anything akin to what a scientist does, but I also don't mean "doing my own research" as some shorthand for being skeptical of all the world's news media and the scientific establishment.