Spring Break
Wikipedia: Simple, fast and wrong
Samuel Lam
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Opinion
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Do you trust the information a regular guy like me can submit?
It's hard to trust just anybody's word on a site like Wikipedia. But we hold onto that thought that submitted information is accurate, that the submitters wouldn't want to lie to a community they love so much.
But we can't rely on Wikipedia so much.
During this time of finals, it's tempting to finish research papers with the help of Wikipedia. I've been tempted to just go to the site, look for information and just base my paper off it rather than confirming it with a legit source. That's not right.
Luckily, Wikipedia pages provide links to other Web pages, books and scholarly articles. Use those instead.
There's nothing wrong with using Wikipedia to look up information. It's not wrong to use the site to get an idea of a subject you're studying. It's a tool, and we should use it to our advantage.
But be smart about when you choose to use it.
You don't want to accidentally profile somebody as a viking.
It's hard to trust just anybody's word on a site like Wikipedia. But we hold onto that thought that submitted information is accurate, that the submitters wouldn't want to lie to a community they love so much.
But we can't rely on Wikipedia so much.
During this time of finals, it's tempting to finish research papers with the help of Wikipedia. I've been tempted to just go to the site, look for information and just base my paper off it rather than confirming it with a legit source. That's not right.
Luckily, Wikipedia pages provide links to other Web pages, books and scholarly articles. Use those instead.
There's nothing wrong with using Wikipedia to look up information. It's not wrong to use the site to get an idea of a subject you're studying. It's a tool, and we should use it to our advantage.
But be smart about when you choose to use it.
You don't want to accidentally profile somebody as a viking.
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