Week 9

I am 22 years old, and I have been in school since I was 4 without any breaks. So, I have written many papers. Most of those papers were research papers. Reliable sources were a requirement in order to receive a good grade. My teachers were always sure to let us know that Wikipedia was not allowed to be one of our sources. I never knew why. I simply did as I was told, and stayed away from it. Now I know why. I was shocked to find out that anyone can edit the material that is found on this website. Much of it has been proven edited as well. Big companies have had a hand in this. If there is a posted article that reflects them negatively then they simply go in and change it. More than that, companies have completely deleted it all together. Or, perhaps a company has gone in and changed something about their opponent to make them look bad. Every time someone edits this website, they leave a digital fingerprint that can lead right back to the computer where the change was made. However, it is simple to simply walk to any Internet cafe, and make the change there.

If any information on Wikipedia can be changed, then I feel that none of its information can be trusted. Now I know why none of my teachers wanted this site used. Sure, there is most likely information that hasn't been tampered with, but would you want your students to come across the one article that is going to give them biased and incorrect information? Absolutely not.