On January 18th many Internet sites went on strike, many by blacking out their sites for 12 hours, from 8 a.m. EST to 8 p.m. EST. The strike was in response to the SOPA bill and the PIPA bill. These legislations are designed to limit the freedom currently experienced online, or basically to promote Internet censorship. Now, while this is all very interesting, what I found to be quite astonishing was the volume of complaints in regard to Wikipedia blacking their English site out for the day.
While reading a news article on the events of the legislations and the subsequent Internet strike, I was surprised at the number of Facebook statuses and 'tweets' coming from students who claimed they wouldn't be able to complete their homework without access to Wikipedia.
Instead of turning to actual books and getting down and dirty with the research ourselves, we often rely on Wikipedia as a fast tool to get all the information we need. And while we may find an abundance of information, and a lot of it that is useful, we can't guarantee how accurate it is.
Wikipedia is run on a volunteer basis, and anyone can contribute, and they can contribute false information. Though charges have since been made, the articles on Arcola, Saskatchewan were no where near accurate. Friends of a young kid in Arcola edited the article to include fictional information, and how many times could that have been done and in how many articles?
I'm not saying Wikipedia is useless, it is a great source of information with articles on nearly everything you could ever inquire about, but it's not 100% accurate, and should be used as a reference, not your only source of information. Wikipedia has a cache of inaccuracy, like many Internet sites. There are more reliable sources of information.
Look at all the resources used by Wikipedia to put together their articles. We too should be taking the time to do the research, and form an opinion or expand our knowledge in a more thorough and assertive way. Going to one source, and a possibly unreliable source is a poor decision for students. And while the Internet is like having the world at our fingertips, whatever happened to books?
For a couple of papers I wrote at university the professor would require that three books be cited and a maximum of two internet sources be used, but how many of us would simply check out the necessary books, include maybe a quote or two from each, and rely heavily on Wikipedia or other internet sources for the majority of our information? And while we re-worded what we found off Wikipedia into our essay, did we really take the time to process and learn the information? Did we actually gain an understanding of the topic in which we wrote about?
Convenient? Yes. Reliable? Not really. It's unfortunate that so many students felt they wouldn't be able to complete their homework or study for an exam without using Wikipedia, because there are vast sources of knowledge beyond Wikipedia, and beyond the Internet. Really, it's the lazy way out. By using Wikipedia, we don't have to put in the effort into the research and exercise our mind. I feel, that by using Wikipedia, we don't learn or retain the knowledge in the same way we would if we were to look beyond one community Internet encyclopedia.
There shouldn't be a mass panic because Wikipedia shuts down for one day, but there is among students. And I'm sure these students wouldn't go into hysteria over not being able to complete their homework if a library book retaining they information they needed was checked out for the day.
Wikipedia is undoubtedly useful and convenient, but it is not the only source of information out there, and it is not the only one individual and students should be relying on. To sound cliché, students should 'think outside the box,' and Wikipedia has certainly become 'the box.'
As much as I would be upset to permanently lose Wikipedia, I'm more upset over the idea that many people think that is the only way to gather and gain information, and the only way to complete homework and succeed in school.
On a last note, and completely unrelated, this will be the last paper in which my writing will appear. Honestly, I have been quite surprised by the amount of good feedback I have received from people in the area in regards to my contributions to the paper, and am grateful for the support I have received since starting at the Observer only a few months ago. As enjoyable as my time here was, Australia awaits!
