I just dont know what to believe

This is my first post and we haven't really been talking about this in class, and I am not sure if we are allowed to just talk about whatever on here but I just wanted to say that I am confused by a lot of things in the world. There are a lot of social issues out there that, perhaps because I live in the enlightened (and some what isolated) world of silicon valley, or because of the way I was raised, that I just don't know what to think about. For instance, illegal immigration, on the one hand, I am told it provides America with cheap labor and a strong workforce for the jobs that most Americans just don't want to do. On the other hand though, while they do pay sales tax on purchases, they don't have to pay income or property tax, while receiving the benefits of public education and healthcare. I don't know what my stance is on immigration because I don't know who to believe. I also don't know if I even believe in the gender wage gap. I have done research on both sides of this and on the one side I hear that resonating cry that "women get paid 77% of what men make, and minorities make even less", and that is terrible don't get me wrong. On the other hand though, I hear (what I feel like are) logical arguments saying that this statistic represents women in the workforce as a whole as opposed to men and women working in the same job for the same amount of time, meaning that the wage gap comes simply from men and women making different decisions in terms of occupation. I also hear arguments that, if companies could get away with paying women less, why would they hire men. These are only two examples of social issues that I really just have not made up my mind about. Something I have observed, however, is that although I am told the wage gap exists, and illegal immigration is bad (or good depending on who you talk to), these things are really just beliefs. Until you make your own study, or watch every step of a study done by someone else, there is know way of knowing if your beliefs have any basis in reality or if they were simply imagined by someone, or someone conducted a biased test and the results are skewed. In fact, although I believe in climate change, I have only been on this earth eighteen years and I have not felt the it getting any hotter. I believe the scientists, and the economists or the politicians when they say this is true or that is true, but I don't know anything for sure. I just don't know what to believe.