Korean student explains Internet’s limitations

Sunjoo Park of Korea wrote about the limitations of the Internet this summer while studying at the English Language Institute.

Computers have become an extremely important part of our lives, and people routinely use the Internet to find all kinds of information.

However, in my opinion, the Internet should not be used as a valuable source of information. This is due to the fact that the tremendous number of Internet sites makes locating information difficult and many of them contain inaccurate information.

First of all, it is difficult and time-consuming to find the exact material you need. This is because the Internet search requires the user to go through dozens of unrelated pages to find relevant data.

For example, I was recently trying to search the Internet for a travel destination. However, it was a very frustrating experience, as most of the site that came up in my search were either unrelated or were actually just advertisements.

Moreover, the information that many Internet sites provide has no credibility. Anybody with basic Web skills can publish Web sites with unproven information because the Internet is unregulated.

For instance, online encyclopedias have grown into the most popular reference Web sites on the Internet. Many people use these Web sites as a resource for information about many different topics, but I feel that it is a very misguided decision.

There is no guarantee that the information is right because anyone can add to or edit it.

As opposed to conventional, paper-based encyclopedias, which are thoroughly researched and checked for accuracy, online encyclopedias may include erroneous information that people assume is correct.

To sum up, the Internet should not be considered to be a source of reliable information. It contains too much irrelevant material and advertising, and much of it may be written by people who are not experts on that subject.

To ensure we are getting factual information, it is still better to refer to trusted sources such as reputable journals or books.