What Is This “Wikipedia” You Speak Of?

Unless you’ve been spending the last 10 years under a very large rock which has very bad cable service, your day-to-day experience is like mine – a steady information and content barrage from radio to tv to emails to internet.  (Not to mention those pesky blogs that just seem to keep popping up everywhere, with guest posts and all….)  These days, Wikipedia has established itself as a handy and primary source of encyclopedic (even if reader-submitted) information.  Remember when we actually used to use – you know – actual encyclopedias?  How they were the be-all, end-all for information on everything about everything?

Back then, access to information generally was pretty limited.  Our family had a World Book encyclopedia set which every child in the house used for school reports.  If we had a report due on pyramids, for example, the process was basically as follows:

1. copy down in pencil the assignment from the blackboard into a composition notebook;
2. take the “P” volume from the World Book set;
3. rewrite the stuff under the “Pyramids” entry to fill about 2 pages of wide-ruled looseleaf paper, but (and this was important!) change a word here or there so as not to be accused of plagiarism;
4. add a cover page with what is obviously a very creative, hand-drawn (ok, perhaps a bit lopsided) pyramid;
5. hope and pray that the teacher won’t look up “Pyramids” in her encyclopedia set and, if she does, that she has the Britannica set at home.

Fast forward to today.  When my kids have a project, it’s a little different and looks something like this:

1. download and print the project requirements from their school website;
2. go online to numerous sources, the first of which will be Wikipedia, a website that didn’t even exist when my kids were born;
3. create a Powerpoint presentation on their laptop which utilizes facts, photos and cool technology;
4. save the project on a memory stick;
5. hope and pray that they don’t embarrass themselves when they’re presenting the project in front of the class.

So things have changed a little bit.  Even my kids give the appearance of being mildly entertained when I tell them about how stuff these days compares with those in the “olden days.”  Yes, the ‘80s are now olden – the sooner you admit it, the happier we’ll all be.  And there’s something about looking back that seems to add some value or legitimacy somehow to the increasing amount of time I pass in this fast-paced world.  I’m really not sure what it is exactly, but I do know that the opportunity for comparisons with the distant past will only increase.  (Remember when kids used to use Wikipedia for their school projects and, you know, “cut and paste”?!)

Susan Moon loves geeky stuff like sci fi and correcting the grammar of individuals who have no interest in using proper grammar (she’s positive her feedback is appreciated). She also loves travel, reading, humor, and karaoke. Susan works as a lawyer at Wyndham, a travel and hospitality company. Follow Susan on Twitter: @susanmoon.