Wikipedia

Who wants to stop reading? Do professors want to stop doing research? Do students want to stop getting information? Studying, Learning, and searching for information will span all the generations. So, the internet is one of the best sources to get information about any topic or issue. There is a Wikipedia website where people can find a lot of information, but there are some risks by using it. Using Wikipedia is not a good idea, because there is no privacy or accuracy.

The first reason that Wikipedia is not a good idea is that there is no privacy. People want to find information through the Internet, so they seek any site that can help them. Wikipedia has a lot of information, but there are some risks since it is free and anyone can write in it without restrictions. Also, people can read what the others wrote and they can edit anything that they see if it is unnecessary or does not go with their thought. On other hand, people can change the idea of the writer in Wikipedia by making some alterations in the article. Moreover, people can add some information to the article without knowing any idea about the subject and maybe it contradicts the writer’s idea. According to Wolverton (2007), “While encyclopedias and journals are generally authored by scholars and peer reviewed before publication, Wikipedia articles can be written and edited by anyone at anytime, bringing about a debate over the risk of giving those outside academia the power to create and contribute to articles on scholarly subjects. Furthering this, users can add, alter, or remove information without registering a user account, giving those who visit the site free and anonymous reign over the available information” (para.7). Since the site is free, people can do whatever they want to do.

Next, Wikipedia is an inaccurate resource, so the researchers cannot trust any information from Wikipedia. Therefore, it is difficult to get the right information because it is open to all people to input what they want. Furthering this, the university, professors asked the students to avoid using Wikipedia as a source, and they do not accept the information from Wikipedia a valid or let them to do any research. According to Lengel (2006), “(Wikipedia) is an encyclopedia compiled by the voluntary contributions of hundreds of writers and editors. Anyone can write an article and post it to the Wikipedia; anyone else can come along later and edit the article. It's a kind of open, voluntary, work in progress. As such, it's the most up-to-date encyclopedia you'll find” (para.6). The author mentioned that there are a lot of people who can write in Wikipedia, so we feel that there is a competition between the people who want to share thoughts. People cannot trust information, as mentioned above. Some people write their opinions and others delete them. Also, there is another reason that makes Wikipedia inaccurate, which is that people may enter this website only to make sabotage. According to Wolverton (2007), “It is not the number of articles available on Wikipedia that is up for debate, though. The argument amongst scholars is that the information available on Wikipedia is not necessarily accurate and that the articles themselves are particularly susceptible to Internet vandalism” (para.11). Wikipedia is not a source that you can depend on it to take an accurate information.

In conclusion, it is difficult for people who write in Wikipedia to see their article changes or miss something on them. Therefore, Wikipedia is not a good idea to take any resource from it. Researchers are not trusting Wikipedia since it is not a reliable source. Also, because Wikipedia is an open website and available to anyone, people may change the information and then people cannot trust any information from it.

Reference:

Lengel, J. (2006, July 02). Authority. Teaching with Technology. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=12
Wolverton, J. (2007, Jan 22). Wikipedia wisdom. Valley Vanguard. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://www.svsu.edu/clubs/vanguard/stories/1141