The Internet is a cultured source of information, which creates ease for the user. It links millions of people, and brings individuals who are geographically miles away right into the same room. Instead of waiting months for "snail mail" to arrive messages arrive almost instantly on the World Wide Web. The Internet is essentially a database which links governmental, educational, and personal networks together to provide the easiest access for the Internet user. Like many things there are positive and negative connotations about the Internet and how it is used. A major issue on the web is the validity of information posted, the question of credible and non-credible knowledge is often discussed. A major source of argument on the internet is the new but well-known website, Wikipedia.
According to: http://mostpopularwebsites.net/ Wikipedia is the seventh most visited website of 2010. Wikipedia is a “Web-based free content encyclopedia,” which in four years of existence grew to be the world's largest encyclopedia. The online encyclopedia can be read and edited by anyone, which for some, raises the question of the accuracy of the content. Because the encyclopedia can be edited by anyone, vandalism and false information can occasionally occur; however, in the event of such a thing there are roughly 16,000 users who monitor the website that will catch a problem and fix it within a matter of minutes.
Personally I think the idea of Wikipedia is brilliant, it is the same theory as a bundle of pencils being stronger than one. The knowledge on Wikipedia is the perspective of millions instead of the opinion of one, which, for me is more accurate then a professional document written by someone who specializes in a certain area. A paper, such as this one is an opinion piece because one person wrote it but on Wikipedia there are millions of users working on each article, if multiple people have the same information it would make the article that much more credible.
As people we need to be able to trust other people, and trust the information that they present to us. In real-life conversations knowledge that a person has and shares with you also may or may not be valid but it is a decision one has to make to see the content as true or false. The Internet is a mode of communication, much like a telephone or letters. If validity is questioned on the Internet and the Internet is found to be at fault, shouldn't the telephone or the post office also be questioned?
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