According to George Orwell”s dystopian novel, “1984,” information would be withheld from the public with the premise of the text, “He who controls the past, controls the future.” The main character, Winston, sets out to change history by changing old newspaper articles to match the new truth which is decided by the “Party.” Orwell may have been on to something.
In contrast, Aldous Huxley”s novel “Brave New World,” seeks to warn against scientific utopianism. Huxley maintains, in a nutshell, the public will be saturated with information, and therefore overwhelmed, making it nearly impossible to discern what is real and what is accurate.
I”m with Huxley on this.
There are groups of words we have come to trust when it comes to navigating the Internet. Most people recognize .edu or .org as reliable.
Now, take this test. Go to your computer, key in the address www.martinlutherkingjr.org.
This is great. There is a lot of information about this American hero on this site. It is usually the first site to pop-up when Reverend King”s name is Googled.
But wait a minute.
Look closely. Go to the links. This site is owned by David Duke. Watch as the URL changes with the links.
For those who are unfamiliar with Duke, here is some background: David Ernest Duke is a former Louisiana State Representative. He was a candidate in presidential primaries for the Democratic and Republican parties. Duke is also famous for his position as the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan.
So here”s some useful advice from children”s librarian Cindy Wilson, Cloverdale Regional Library, part of Sonoma County Public Library:
“If you really want reliable information you should limit your search to a domain like .gov or .edu, and still you always need to have a critical eye when you”re looking for information.”
This is a concept that is commonly taught in school. It is called information literacy.
“That is a big part of the curriculum now in public schools — who is putting up the Web site and why, what are their credentials, what position are they advocating?”
“The first thing I look at is the domain, another thing is how current it is, that”s really important, then you know if it”s been sitting there for years or if it”s something that people are working on,” according to Wilson.
This type of research fully engages the researcher in critical thinking.
Anyone can submit content to Wikipedia. It”s fine to look at it for popular culture purposes. It cannot be deemed fully reliable.
A colleague compares citing Wikipedia as a source to citing the term paper of the person who sits next to you in one of your high school classes. It is a common practice in college computer literacy courses to test Wikipedia by posting false information about a subject and tracking how long the incorrect information remains on the site. I followed an example for more than a year.
The Internet is an amazing resource.
Here”s the really good news, there are sites that really help people. My favorite is www.freecycle.org. Once signed in to this site, you are added to an e-mail list. This is the mission statement for the site: “Changing the world one gift at a time ?The Freecycle Network? is made up of 4,375 groups with 5,150,000 members across the globe. It”s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It”s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them”s good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box.”
National Institutes of Health is the focal point for biomedical research in the U.S. and the best hands-down medical resource online, this site can be accessed at www.nih.gov.
With the assistance of qualified professionals, I have found the Web sites that suit my searches and needs. It serves as a virtual address book for research. I refer to recommended New York Times resources often.
The world of technology has surely changed since the bunny ears wrapped in tin foil atop the television.
I think the benefits of this brave new world outweigh its shortcomings.
But travel the information superhighway with caution.
Mandy Feder is assistant managing editor of a sister newspaper, the Lake County Record-Bee.
