Wikipedia TOTALLY unreliable?!?

Question

Today at school, a few people from the state came and told us about as we're getting older, we're studying more and using the internet more. They told us about search engines not to use, obvious like Google, Yahoo, MSN, ect ect. I was fine with them telling us that not all of those search engines were reliable with their information, and that pretty much anybody can make a website and tell you something is true. Then they switched over to websites. They pretty much forced it down our throats that wikipedia is pretty much, totally unreliable, misleading, and just all around not good for looking stuff up. At first some of us students were like...WTF? Then we had a "discussion" but it was pretty much pointless, we told them that it wasn't just as simple as clicking a article and writing "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH". You need to make a account first :-). Also that people also go over articles and check them. At because the sources are cited, we can just go there to confirm that they're true and see if sombody made them different at wikipedia. It'd probably also have more detailed information then in wikipedia. If its not cited, its boldy stated, if its debated or biased it states it. People aren't stupid (well most aren't), we have common sense, so if we just use it, we can pretty much tell when something is true or not. I know that's not always the case, but still most of the it is time. Is this true for all teachers? I'm moving through High School now and I want to know if all/most High School Teachers and College Professors think this too.

Answer 1

The root of "ignorant" is "ignore". The further up the educational ladder you go the stronger these attitudes are. Thanks for trying. And please continue to use and help improve Wikipedia.

Answer 2

Anybody can change Wikipedia articles, account or not. A lot of information on there is incorrect by accident, and at times on purpose. You're not going to be able to always tell if something is true or not if you're trying to learn something on there you know very little about. We learn things we don't already know, which is why you wouldn't know if what you have read is true or not (unless it is a bit too 'out there').

Wikipedia, for this reason, is not considered an authoritative source of information, which means that using it for any academic or work-based research does not always go down well. I am not allowed to source it in any work I do at the university.  

Answer 3

People blow Wikipedia's unreliability WAY out of proportion.

You can't, of course, cite the website in your Works Cited, but it's a good way to get concise answers and sources to work off of

Answer 4

It's not totally unreliable. It's true you don't need an account to add info, but the people who monitor it fix every wrong change they can like- 6 seconds after it was edited. Trust me, I tried :P

Wikipedia is a pretty legitimate reference site, so I doubt that it would be "totally unreliable", maybe 5% of the info is misleading.  

Answer 5

Wikipedia is NOT totally unreliable.  In fact, there's tons of good information there.  However, the biggest problem with Wikipedia is that virtually anyone can edit it and re-edit it.  There have been documented cases of companies removing "bad" information from their Wikipedia pages (of course, it gets put back on later, but still).  Also, Wikipedia is CONSTANTLY changing.  There's a good chance that a reference will be different the next day.  Internet articles, once printed, are rarely ever edited except in extreme circumstances which makes the data more consistant and reliable.  For instance, look up CNN articles.  They will likely never change and always be available.

In short, use Wikipedia as a point to get you started and on the right track or when you don't care about sources.  However, many wikipedia articles include sources at the bottom... USE THOSE!  But as far as credible research is concerned, Wikipedia will never cut it.

Answer 6

Most teachers don't like Wikipedia. It used to be very easy to change it, although I understand that the people running it have made it harder for people to mess with. Anyway, if you find something on Wikipedia, use the sources listed there as your sources, not Wikipedia. Wikipedia might be an okay place to start, but be sure to dig deeper.  

Answer 7

teachers and staff call it unreliable b/c anybody can change anything, making it a not trusted source. its great for getting infomation if u ever wanted to know about anything, but you cannott use it in a papper or report for school b/c its not a trusted source. i use wikipedia everyday.