The Information Super Highway
The Internet is an amazing tool for finding information and is a standard in many people's eyes for research in a myriad of topics. Children and adolescents who have grown up with the internet have grown accustomed to using a browser as today's most efficient and powerful libary card. There are websites popping up on a daily basis that contain information on any topic availiable, and as the internet grows in popularity and age, it only stands to reason that there will literally be a method for obtaining information on any topic one can imagine. This growing trend though, can lead to some unpleasant problems due to the growth of internet usage. People who choose to use the internet for malignant reasons have been spreading around the internet and today one of the most staggering problems is not only internet safety such as viruses, identity theft, and other criminal ideas, but there is also the growing problem of misinformation. Hoaxes and innaccuracies are rampant on the internet, much like they are in any other source of information.With great potential, comes great responsibility
With multiple sites out there that can help the end-user in various ways, some of them grow not only in popularity, but also in possible problems. Wikipedia is one of the most, if not the number one most used wiki on the web right now. A wiki is a site where users can edit the site's content themselves, and essentially becomes larger and more fleshed out as peopel visit the site. The amazing potential of a site such as Wikipedia is that it allows the users of the site to share information, thereby allowing a great amount of information to be spread to the rest of the users. Simply imagine the potential if everyone in the world were able to share their specialized, or simply personal knowledge so that we could access this wellspring at any time. The basic premise of having an encyclopedia of information based upon everyone's knowledge has great possibilities.Unfortunately there is also the problem of innaccuracies. As the site's popularity has grown, so has the amount of people who edit it. This is a great benefit because it ensures that there will be more content, but at the same time, it also allows for more possible errors. Some of the users who edit these pages aren't always certain of what they are adding to the site, while others simply want to add some incorrect information on purpose. Speaking from personal experience, there are a great deal of people who will spread some information without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are saying is true. I can't say I don't do it as well, but I usually preface such statements with, "I'm not sure about this, but I read it at [insert source]." Wikipedia cannot claim that every article on their site is valid and true, but they don't claim it anyway. As an online community of individuals who edit pages to increase information, there is great potential, but each user has the responsibility to bring that potential to good ends. This is not always the case.
You Can't Always Trust What You Read
There are various sites on the internet that exist not only to spread information, but do so with the express purpose of changing your mind or simply lying to you.
This site seems llike a site dedicated to factual information
regarding Martin Luther King. It tells not only a list
information regarding Martin Luther King, but it does so with what is
obviously false to most readers. It is an attempt to sway people
to hate Martin Luther King through a series of accounts regarding his
life. What it also does is recommend certain books such as "My
Awakening" by David Duke. Of all things that people have heard
regarding Mr. Duke, one of them is certainly not his fair and honest
history with his feelings towards non-white people. Sites such as
martinlutherking.org are meant specifically to sway the mind and views
of their readers without any attempt at verifying their findings, and
most probably attempting to spread information that they know to be
untrue.
I will assume that most readers of this site did not know that Bill Gates, the well known personality of Microsoft had been shot. What you the reader most likely was completely unaware of, was that he was assassinated by an unknown gunman on December 2, 1999.
The reason for this is that he isn't dead. This website is an
advertising attempt by the creators of Nothing So Strange
, which is a mockumentary that depicts the death of Bill Gates.
In this there is a conspiracy theory that revolves around the death of
3 men on the same day. Unfortunately by only seeing or stumbling
upon the Citizens for
Truth website, a user can possibly believe it to be true. Of
course, the creators were probably not tryinig to get everyon to
believe this, but simply advertise their film. It is still
possible that some people would believe this to be true. One
person I spoke to in recent years believed the moon landing to be
false. He based this on internet research on sites such as this
site that talks about the fake landing.