Piece of Trash
The internet is a piece of trash. No one worth listening to is ever found by a search engine, in fact anyone worth listening to will not be found on the internet. Or, if they are, you have to pay to access whatever site that person happens to column or research or do whatever for. You see, there are a lot of helpful ideas and brilliant people who post wonderful and insightful things every day on their blogs, on message boards or on personal websites but no matter how helpful and earth shattering this interpretation/column/opinion/idea/whatever may be it is useless. These people have no credentials and therefore there is not a single one of them that is really worth reading when researching. Once they gain credential they end up being worthless somehow.
Most students know this. Whether one has grown up with the internet as a given or has come to learn to use and depend upon it a conclusion is always drawn: the internet sucks at research. Teachers seem to have this idealistic view that one can find anything on the internet. Their idealism is based off of fact, if something is not actually on the internet then it has something close enough. Unfortunately finding what you need is a whole different story. Yes, google it. Sure, that works, I really do not care what Raven has to say in her blog about the "Tell-Tale Heart" and I could not use the opinions of 10-year-old Jeff no matter how much it applies to my research topic. Sites that have not been updated in years promise you that one thing you have been searching for all night but the promise will never be fulfilled because the words of doom are written on the bottom of that notice, yes: "Coming soon!" No, the internet is not the least bit useful unless one is given where to go and even then a 404 page error, server crashes or regenerating links can cause promised data to disappear.
When someone does find something useful on the internet, something that can actually be used in an assignment, it is often a fluke. Sometimes students desperate for a source add the information they need to find (from the internet, of course) onto Wikipedia praying the teacher knows nothing about how the "encyclopedia" works. These rarities and lies lead teachers to believe they are right and continue on with their misled thinking and false knowledge forcing next year's students to repeat the process.
The internet may have been a well of knowledge. Maybe it still is, but if that is so it is a very polluted well and drinking from it is probably a health risk.
Most students know this. Whether one has grown up with the internet as a given or has come to learn to use and depend upon it a conclusion is always drawn: the internet sucks at research. Teachers seem to have this idealistic view that one can find anything on the internet. Their idealism is based off of fact, if something is not actually on the internet then it has something close enough. Unfortunately finding what you need is a whole different story. Yes, google it. Sure, that works, I really do not care what Raven has to say in her blog about the "Tell-Tale Heart" and I could not use the opinions of 10-year-old Jeff no matter how much it applies to my research topic. Sites that have not been updated in years promise you that one thing you have been searching for all night but the promise will never be fulfilled because the words of doom are written on the bottom of that notice, yes: "Coming soon!" No, the internet is not the least bit useful unless one is given where to go and even then a 404 page error, server crashes or regenerating links can cause promised data to disappear.
When someone does find something useful on the internet, something that can actually be used in an assignment, it is often a fluke. Sometimes students desperate for a source add the information they need to find (from the internet, of course) onto Wikipedia praying the teacher knows nothing about how the "encyclopedia" works. These rarities and lies lead teachers to believe they are right and continue on with their misled thinking and false knowledge forcing next year's students to repeat the process.
The internet may have been a well of knowledge. Maybe it still is, but if that is so it is a very polluted well and drinking from it is probably a health risk.