The Internet as an Unreliable Source of Information - Essay Example

Technology can help us to find information faster than ever before. Because of ease-of-access, the Internet is the main source of information for most people. Modern technology has progressed to a point where news and information are almost instantaneous. It is a hassle for most people to go to the library to read a book, or even go and buy a newspaper. The reason for this is that the same information is available online and can be accessed faster. Although the Internet contains a great deal of useful information, certain information can be manipulated and altered depending on someone’s point of view, lies can be made to discredit others or improve someone’s credibility, and consumers can get sucked into buying something that they don’t fully understand.

The reason why we cannot believe everything that is on the Internet is because some information can be changed to suit someone’s biased opinion. For example, the site Wikipedia.com is an unreliable source of information because anyone can go onto the website and change the information anytime that he or she wants. If such a website is considered as a reliable source to get information from, then we will be led astray. It is difficult to believe anything that comes from that website even if the information is common sense.

One group that may take advantage of this situation is hackers. As we know, these people hack websites for several reasons, and only one of the reasons is for changing the information on a website. Other motives could be due to money, for revenge, or personal attacks. This is a huge danger that affects the credibility of websites as a source of reliable information. Another reason why the internet cannot be trusted is that there are many lies online. You cannot even imagine how many lies are posted every day.

This does not just affecting website credibility; it also gives that website a bad reputation, which means that the site is marked “x”. Why do people post lies on the Internet? This is a good question that cannot be fully answered. Some examples of this are people lying on dating websites in order to find a better partner and businesses lying to grab people’s attention. For dating websites, people do not post bad pictures of themselves because they want to make sure that their profiles are perfect.

When someone looks at the profile and sees what a person wrote about him or herself, the reader may say: “that is the type of person who I have been looking to find for a long time.” What makes me laugh is that people lie about their height, income, and body shape. A study by OkCupid shows that, on average, people are two inches shorter in real life than what they say on their profiles. The same study also showed that people are twenty percent poorer than what they say on their dating profiles.

There are many websites on the internet that want to grab people’s attention, and they do so by lying to them. Once people are hooked into the product or service that is being offered, there is sometimes no way to back out of the deal. As an example, hosting services on the Internet can be deceiving at times. When people search for hosting services on search engines, they always try to find a price that is cheaper than what is currently being offered to them.