The internet has come, bringing with it the winds of change that have transformed our lives for ever. No part of out daily life has remained untouched by the revolution that is the ‘World Wide Web’, and our innate dependency on it is continuously on the increase. No longer do you have to browse through the pages of numerous books to get information; all you have to do is surf through the net, sift through the numerous sites and get all the information you need.
Online reference sites, much like search engines, have become very popular among people who use the internet to gain knowledge. These reference sites provide answers to specific questions. There are millions of such sites on the net that deal with specific subjects that range from entertainment to health and from education to career. Think about any topic and you can get a specialized reference site for the same or a generalized reference site that will give you all the information you need.
It is the belief of many that spoon feeding is at the forefront of the modern mans quest for knowledge. One does not have to make any effort to find any kind of information. It’s there at his fingertips, courtesy the internet! This begets the question, is all the information found on the online references sites reliable?
We have formed this habit of blindly trusting whatever has been written in the online reference sites. It’s something that was bound to happen, what with our increasing reliance on this mode of gaining knowledge. However, to ensure against false or inaccurate information, we need to be very careful of the online reference sites that we use. Many of the better sites do list the sources of their information and the qualification and experience of their writers. Be wary of those online reference sites that do not let you know about the sources and the people who have written them.
At times, these sites have outdated information on a particular subject. In such cases it’s really very difficult to ascertain what information stands and which does not. When you go through the content available on an online reference site the best way to validate the authenticity of the articles is by finding out if the site is regularly updated or not. Look for the last date when the site was updated. You can also look for a .org or a .edu website for extra trustworthiness.
At times people find contradictory information on the same topics, in different sites. This of course, tells them nothing other than, that most websites don’t know what they are talking about. In such cases it is advisable to search for an official or reliable website on the topic and then gather your facts.
In the end, it’s all a matter of trial and loads of error. You can choose to believe most of what is written on any given online reference sites or you can gather information from various sources on the web and then arrive at an answer. In the former you might just burn your finger sometimes and in the latter, time will be a constraint. So, all you can do is take care, read through the lines, and use a reliable online reference site.
Swati Banerjee is the owner of Writing Ink, a web content management firm based out of India, that services clients from across the globe.
Please take a minute to visit http://www.writing-ink.com to experience how the bright young minds here make magic with words!
Source: www.isnare.com
