Whenever there’s an argument at the dinner table or a debate between friends I seem to find myself getting sent to computer to find out who is right. I have to confess the first web site I go to is Wikipedia. All the information I need is right there and organized for me, but is it verified? Can I trust this source? My old roommate in Malta is banned from making wiki entries due to some unflattering and untrue information we uploaded about the current president. In his defence it was super funny. However even knowing that this is easily done it’s still the first site I’ll go to.
Some wiki entries have sources linked at the bottom of the page, and sometimes an article will have a warning at the top of the page warning you that some information in the article is not sourced. Wiki is made up completely of user generated content, and with that being the case it can never really be a trusted source. Shame.
Let’s be honest though wiki isn’t the only thing online that can’t be trusted. If we look back to my previous blog entry and think about how people can choose to represent themselves online it comes as no surprise that we can just as easily make stuff up. In BBCs Scientific Focus magazine they published an article about how half of the updates on Facebook are untrue or at least a twisted version of the truth. Some updates are so put together it’s as if they are done for an audience (I should really just tell them to start their own blog).
Real life and cyberspace seem to be merging with people being able to update their location, nicknames becoming user handles and I’ve even heard some people say ‘lol’ rather than just laughing. Will our online public identities merge with our real life ones? What does that mean for our privacy? I think people appreciate privacy more now than ever, and can choose to join in the rising culture of telling everyone everything all the time. Personally I’m just going to sit back and watching it from a comfortable distance.
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