Should students be able to cite databases like Wikipedia that depend on the knowledge of the masses? The answer in indefinitely no, according to Wikipedia itself strongly cautions against using Wikipedia as a reference and suggests using the material that wiki references instead. There is no way to tell who is adding or deleting information from the Wikipedia database or whether that person is even reputable. It is possible for people to delete true information from the database and replace it with false information which can make it difficult for the readers to distinguish what is true and false.
There are many who believe the Wikipedia is a reputable source because of the amount of people who are continually “improving “the site will catch the errors and random acts of vandalism. Some even believe that Wikipedia has changed the ways of truth and what it means to be false. These supporters argue that people learn from the masses starting from infancy such as speech, colors, ect. These people believe the community believes two plus two equals four the same way it decides what an apple is by consensus. If the community changes its mind ad decides two plus two equals five then two plus two does indeed equal five, now isn’t that a disturbing thought?
It would have been inconceivable a hundred years ago an unorganized army of unpaid volunteers could create anything of value but Wikipedia has the potential to be the greatest effort in collaborative knowledge gathering the world has ever seen , and even possible the largest cooperation of volunteers of any kind. The English language alone has had more than three million entries and is constantly ranked among the most visited sites in the world.
The amount of volunteers working on Wikipedia make it a useful tool for a starting place to start any kind or research, however it is only a starting place, from there the users need to practice their critical thinking and check th sources themselves to make sure the facts are true.
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