What rabbit hole of information do you fall into when you start an internet search? If you are like most, you plunge down a slippery slope of content merged with previous search histories now permanently stored between the add-obsessed algorithms in the tiny but manipulative computer brain on your laptop.
If you are an educator, like me, you probably cringe at the sight of .com sources on the works cited page of your student's essays. If you are a student looking for reliable information on the internet, you have questioned the credibility of any website you have researched wondering if your professor’s marginal remarks will call you out as if you had chosen to cite Wikipedia itself.
Do you go to the “About” page to get a sense of what point of view or value the website owner/author has? Maybe, if your values align with the “about me” blurb, you decided to read on before deciding if the rest of the information on the site can be trusted too.
Or maybe, the particular website content you read is along the lines of what you already believe, so the source is validating what you already know about the topic. No brainer, right? It must be true because someone else agrees with you. Well sure, if you are close-minded and not interested in thinking further than your ego.
You can find hundreds of websites that share your take on any topic presented, and hundreds that don’t. When we search for advice, we are drawn to information that tells us what we want to hear. Finding someone else who agrees with you is certainly validating, but is it the most valuable?
Should we discredit all websites because the opinions cancel each other out? Can we on printed books, archived articles, and encyclopedias of the past to find reliable information? The problem is, anything written in the past is no more or less reliable than anything on the internet today. Perhaps, publishing a book pre-internet and e-books, was more challenging but still, the credibility of the content depends on the source then and now.
What about peer-reviewed articles? Yes, they are more reliable since the content has been reviewed and critiqued by other experts on the topic. Still, biases exist, and accessing peer-reviewed articles can come at a price. Most school and public libraries offer access codes to full databases of professional journals, but even without this access, you could pay per article. There is a reason these articles cost. You are paying for professional expertise and industry-established credible sources.
Not all content on the internet is the same, or free, but like with anything, you get what you pay for.
Go to any job posting site and search for freelance writing jobs, and you will get an extensive list of websites or companies looking for someone to write for them. Some have requirements for formal education, but most of the time, the qualifications only consider the writing ability and not the content knowledge of the writer.
What if you need an expert opinion that requires a formal degree on the topic, such as legal or medical opinions? How do you determine if the information you search for is vetted? It is important to remember that writing experience in some industries does not require a formal education at all. Content knowledge can simply be attached to the amount of research a person spends on any topic of interest and gathers to present from a new perspective.
Sometimes it is easier for people to believe what they read on the internet or in a book because to genuinely study and understand any topic requires one to think. It seems these days, most people don’t want to think, they just want the information given to them with a neat bow tied around it as if it is a gift, not something earned.
Thinking is hard, and most people just do not want to do it.
How does anyone know what is credible in a world of fake news, trending social media influencers, and websites saturated with information on an infinite number of topics?
Credible writing has become not just a lost art, but a dying tool society must strive to sustain, so future generations have an accurate account of history.
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