Time to grow up…use Wikipedia
While growing up there are many things that are instilled into the brains of students that stay with them throughout the rest of their educational endeavors. And, while some of these things are important and must be followed when writing academic papers — there are some things that it is shocking to learn that don’t need to be followed.
One of these things is the use of Wikipedia when writing your essays, articles, and any other type of scholarly work.
Now if you were anything like me, this notion would shock you. As both a middle school and high school student I was taught to avoid Wikipedia like the plague and do not pay any attention to it since it wasn’t, in my teacher’s words, a “reliable or trustworthy” source.
So imagine my surprise when I sat down in my first English class once entering my undergraduate program and not only did my professor recommend using Wikipedia, they encouraged it.
The main reason many teachers may tell their students to avoid Wikipedia is because Wikipedia allows their pages to be edited by anyone. As this article from the Guardian points out, there are many instances where individuals like politicians and public figures will go in and edit their own pages to make themselves seem more successful or to sponge away scandals and misdoings.
There are also numerous cases where Wikipedia has had hoaxes appear on their site, Wikipedia has compiled a list of most of these themselves, where users have gone in and edited pages to provide falsified information. The longest-running hoax was up for 16.52 years and was about a fake hip-hop soul singer named Ruda Real.
Educators and academics believe it is important to avoid Wikipedia because of cases like these. Students who don’t know better could use Wikipedia in their writings and end up sourcing/having their arguments influenced by incorrect information because it was easy to access online.
But just as there is a downside to many things, there is also an upside. Wikipedia as a source itself may not be the best but it is a hub of sources that individuals can use to enrich their work if you take the time to sift through it.
For example, say I want to write a story about the sexualization of women in the media and intend to hone in on the MeToo movement, I wouldn’t necessarily source Wikipedia as a website where I gathered my information. However, I could go to the MeToo movement’s Wikipedia page and use hyperlinks in there to connect me to credible and fascinating sources that will provide me with what I am looking for. I could also scroll to the bottom of the page and peruse the Reference section and direct myself from there — in this instance, the MeToo movement page has 343 references I could search through that would more than likely provide me with the information I need.
Going even further beyond providing sources, Wikipedia is a great tool to use when learning about web literacy how to verify the information you find online. College is the time when young adults should be fostering and growing the skills that will benefit them once they enter the workforce — and there is no greater skill than being able to determine what is true and fact vs. what is fake news.
According to a study done by the Indianapolis Recorder, 74% of adults in the US between the ages of 16–65 use a computer at work, and 81% of these adults use a computer in everyday life. If that statistic doesn’t convince you of how important establishing a strong foundation of digital literacy is, what about the fact that with the digitization of the American workforce, according to ITIF (the information technology and innovation foundation) over 70 percent of U.S. jobs now require middle- to high-level digital skills.
How can Wikipedia help with this? Well, for starters it teaches students about fact-checking. By having students jump into Wikipedia articles to look for information that supports their claims they are not only learning how to research but they are learning practices that will benefit them when checking the validity of claims and information.
It also works as a launchpad of basic, surface-level info that can point students in the right direction of where to go when researching. It teaches them footnotes and assists them with how to best continue researching through an array of resources.
In conclusion, it’s time to go against the mold and break free of the ideas that were forced upon us while growing up. In short, as the title of this article suggests…grow up, and use Wikipedia.
