Research means formulating a question. Sketching the kind of evidence you think would provide answers to the question and then dispassionately looking for that evidence and either answering the question or determining it can't yet be answered.
Falling into an internet rabbit hole and stimulating your sense of fear or wonder reading the strangest things you can find that creep you out isn't research. It's fun maybe, but it's not research.
Yes both involve searching and reading but ... come on.
