As technology advances it appears that people also continue to advance. We now have available to us through the internet an endless amount of information that is accessible to anyone who has a connection and a computer. People are now able to become more knowledgeable through the vast amount of information available on the internet about various subjects through the click of a button (Royal, 138). Old technology like books, newspapers, and journals appear to be disappearing as a source for information and people are now using new technology like search engines in order to gain information (Brown, 1). The internet unlike old technology allows people to search exactly what information they want at whatever time they want without having to wait and buy a newspaper, book, or journal about a specific subject. The internet allows you to log onto your computer, type in what you are looking for, and be supplied with endless information from many people, both credible and non-credible on the subject of choice. An extremely popular search engine available to internet users today is Wikipedia (Royal, 138). It is so popular among its users because it is a “free encyclopedia”. People no longer have to go looking for information on the internet because Wikipedia provides information that people are looking for, enough information to allow them to become knowledgeable on a specific subject. It popularity is proven through the 38 million views that it receives each month (Brown, 139).
After reading the articles I do not believe that my opinion about Wikipedia has changed. I am not an avid user of the online encyclopedia and would never use it for a university assignment. However I do believe that it is a good resource to gain basic knowledge about a topic. I and also many others that are using Wikipedia are aware that the information can be illegitimate. We have been taught for years in school that Wikipedia is not a credible source of information because any internet user is able to edit content that is available on its site (Giles, 900). However if I am looking for an overview of information about a topic Wikipedia is my go to site. Brown claimed in the article that old documents like encyclopedias, books, newspapers, and journals are no longer an accessible and practical for gaining information in today’s technological world. We want information fast and when and where we want it. Search engines like Wikipedia provide exactly that to its users. I will continue using Wikipedia even after I have this information, however after knowing the amount of illegitimate information that is provided through its server I will not take the information too seriously. If I want a quick summarization about a topic at a convenient time for me, that is when I will use Wikipedia, for assignments and important information related to work I will continue using online credible articles, journals and books.
References
Brown, J. S. & P. Duguid. (1996). The Social Life of Documents. First Monday. 1, 1.
Giles. J. (2005). Special Report: Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature. 438, pp 900-901.
Royal, C. & Kapila, D. (2009). What's on Wikipedia, and What's Not . . . ?: Assessing Completeness of Information. Social Science Computer Review. 27, 1. pp 138-148.
I also agree that the internet in this day and age provides us with endless amounts of information that old technology could never provide for humans. Old technology like books, newspapers provided information to its viewers except only the information that they decided to show to the public and at their time. However the internet now allows us the ability to have access to whatever information we want at whatever time we want at the touch of a button.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Wikipedia is not a credible source of information for assignments in University however it can provide ideas for certain topics. Like you said it is a good resource for gaining fast information about a topic however I believe that people must understand the implication associated with the information provided on Wikipedia that there may be false information that they are reading. I believe that Wikipedia however has more credibility than any type of blog or forum for receiving information. A blog or forum about a certain topic can hold information that is bias, and uncredible. At least Wikipedia has editors to fix the mistakes each day and also has a list of references at the bottom of the page.