Know It All

In my opinion, Wikipedia has always been an easily accessible, informal, somewhat-untrusted bank of information for the common consumer and/or student (it definitely helped me compile a few essays in high school), but I had no idea about its history. I have a cousin from Huntsville, AL and it was pretty cool to learn that the creator of a modern-day icon was also from there. Wikipedia shared the beginning of most other independent websites (slow!), but grew rapidly once the word got out.

While I absolutely love the philosophy and idea of Wiki, I'm not entirely fond of the effect it has on the over-user. For instance, I had a friend who would read Wikipedia articles for hours on end and was constantly convinced that he was correct in every argument (because he had read it on Wikipedia). Granted, there is a large amount of valid information on the site, and I am not arguing against its credibility (though a college professor will bring a gun to that swordfight).  It just seems to me that if people are shown articles written and "approved" by random individuals from all over the world, doesn't it stand to reason that at least some of it is absolute garbage? And don't you think that allowing people to be somewhat self-proclaimed experts on subjects by writing their own articles would contribute to just a little bit of narcissism?

All nitpicky criticisms aside, Wikipedia is an amazing website. Wales had the kind of revolutionary vision Zuckerberg had when he created Facebook: a new way to link even more people to even more information through our ever-growing technological society. When we can find out on our cell phones today what people had to go to a library to learn twenty years ago, I would say that it is a pretty remarkable period in our history.