Why does Wikipedia get a bad wrap?

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 In high school, all those moons ago, I remember every teacher saying something like, "And don't use Wikipedia as a source for your paper.  You can't trust anything on there."

Now, that was around 2009, so maybe it was warranted once Wiki became a pretty popular site.  Now, in 2022, I'd say most people generally trust the content on Wikipedia.  

Wikipedia acts as a sort of open-source database on anything and everything.  Over the years, the site now has a large volunteer base that keeps track of changes and updated content created by general users that make any sort of change.  I really do understand the stress that was had over not trusting something that literally anyone on the planet can edit.  But now, since Wiki is popular worldwide and tracks and edits the changes, I think the fear of this tool should be a thing of the past.

The benefits of using this resource greatly outweigh the negatives.  Another super helpful aspect of the site is the resource and external links sections at the bottom of every page.  This data helps readers see more information on the topic and any related information like references, authors mentioned, and a lot more.

Wikipedia has turned into a great tool that I think will gain in popularity in the future.  It's already pretty darn popular, but hopefully, more in education will see it as a reliable source of information.  

I mean, we currently say, "hold on, let me Google that."  Maybe one day we will be saying, "Let me check that on Wiki!"


Comments

  1. Lauren ShellJune 4, 2022 at 9:49 PM

    I've been thinking a lot about this too! I was constantly told throughout school never to use Wikipedia as a source and that the information was completely unreliable. As a result, I have never really used Wikipedia and when I heard the term, crowdsourcing, my first thought was Wikipedia and I immediately thought it was a negative thing. I'm starting to see situations when crowdsourcing could be useful though, so hopefully I'll open up more to Wikipedia as well!

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