As I continue to read this book I am starting to see that I didn't realize what a community Wikipedia really is. These Wikipedians use this website as a channel for political discussion, and personal arguments. It really is a whole other world, which is amazing considering it's just a website. It reminds me off the video we watched in class, talking about how youtube is a community. I really never thought of these websites as communities, in the way I had looked at Facebook and other social networking sites. People love Wikipedia because they get to write about anything they want. It gives readers of an old encyclopedia the power to be a part of it all and it puts all people on an equal playing field. Whether you are a brilliant professor or some guy in his pajamas in his living room, both get to use Wikipedia and edit articles at their leisure.
It is sometimes hard to trust the information on Wikipedia for a few reasons. One reason is, for a multitude of reasons, the information that you are reading could be false. There are many people who take pleasure in vandalizing articles, and others who just don't have the correct facts. It is also hard to trust some articles because the links they site at the bottom could be mirrors of Wikipedia. We do end up trusting it though because it is such a major site. It's fame is world wide, and it is common knowledge now as to what it is. Wikipedia has also become a place where we double check information, such as breaking news. In this world of technology, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia know things before the news does. It's crazy, but true. I know personally I have found out about more breaking news through Facebook statuses than the news, and then when I read something in someone's status, I google it and most likely end up on Wikipedia reading the breaking article. We really do live in a world of speed, where we find out about things so close to when they happen. I really found the last little story about the David Rhodes kidnapping interesting. The fact that those people might have gone on the internet to find out more about who he was, is incredible. I feel it's true, if they had seen such a Wikipedia article where it states he had been kidnapping the results might have been different
I really enjoyed reading this book, because again, it puts the world we live in into perspective. One website can really change the world. This access to information is a wonderful yet dangerous thing, and we all need to learn how to use it wisely. You can't take everything you see on there seriously, but if you are wise you will learn how to use Wikipedia to your advantage.
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