I loves me some internet
Jan. 11th, 2008 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hearthstoneDan and I were talking last night, and realized that we both use Wikipedia a lot more than you'd expect, considering how it works.
(Used to be I turned first to Google for most things. (Before that I think it was AltaVista.) But these days I often look first at Wikipedia. I know, I know. And I'll admit that this is probably true because so many of the things I "have to know" at 3 in the morning are popular culture references, and Wikipedia is pretty good at those.)
We started out talking about how we had survived all those pre-internet years without being able to find out any bit of information we wanted/needed to know within minutes of deciding we wanted/needed to know it. I do remember going to the library a lot for my info-junkie fixes, back when I was in college. Of course the information in the library was finite--once I'd read everything they had on the Salem witch trials or medieval cooking or turn-of-the-century genetics theory, that was it. The internet has no such limitation, so theoretically there is no end to what you can find there. In any case, I guess when I wanted to know something, I just...waited for the library to open. Accepted that there was only so much I'd be able to find out, and went to look for it. And assumed that what I found was, for the most part, accurate, or at least that it provided the information I was looking for.
Now, of course, there's no waiting necessary, most of the time. And my patience has suffered. Want NOW.
(Used to be I turned first to Google for most things. (Before that I think it was AltaVista.) But these days I often look first at Wikipedia. I know, I know. And I'll admit that this is probably true because so many of the things I "have to know" at 3 in the morning are popular culture references, and Wikipedia is pretty good at those.)
We started out talking about how we had survived all those pre-internet years without being able to find out any bit of information we wanted/needed to know within minutes of deciding we wanted/needed to know it. I do remember going to the library a lot for my info-junkie fixes, back when I was in college. Of course the information in the library was finite--once I'd read everything they had on the Salem witch trials or medieval cooking or turn-of-the-century genetics theory, that was it. The internet has no such limitation, so theoretically there is no end to what you can find there. In any case, I guess when I wanted to know something, I just...waited for the library to open. Accepted that there was only so much I'd be able to find out, and went to look for it. And assumed that what I found was, for the most part, accurate, or at least that it provided the information I was looking for.
Now, of course, there's no waiting necessary, most of the time. And my patience has suffered. Want NOW.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-11 06:01 am (UTC)But, I know what you mean. I like having the internet at my fingertips also.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 04:14 pm (UTC)There are studies showing Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 04:16 pm (UTC)