People that Look Down on Wikipedia

Has this ever happened to you? You’re having a conversation with a friend about something you both are interested in (let’s say just that it’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s weirder looking older brother “sister” Maggie Gyllenhaal). Your friend looks confused when you tell them that Maggie Gyllenhaal is actually not half human and half three-toed sloth. They skeptically ask you where you heard this. “I read it on Wikipedia.” you reply. Your friend laughs, asks you if you’re serious, and then informs you that you’re a filthy moron for believing what you read on Wikipedia.

Look out, kids! It's a wild animal!! ...oh wait...Nevermind, it's just a baby animal.

I recently read one of the posts on a very, very funny blog you might have heard of called Stuff White People Like. The post I enjoyed so much was titled, “Where the Wild Things Are.” In the post, the very perceptive writer notes that one of things “white people” hate the most is when things they like go mainstream. Part of the post reads:

“This is partly due to their fear that something they love will be made accessible to more people and thus enjoyed by more people which immediately decreases the amount of joy a white person can feel towards the original property. Yes, it’s complicated.”

Though the word is never used in the post, the author was clearly talking about pretension. People (of all races) hate when something they enjoy is made available to the masses. Someone who was a fan of the Adam Young solo project, Owl City, will likely be turned off to his smash hit single, “Fireflies,” since its rise to popularity in late 2009. Why? Because there’s nothing special about liking Owl City if everyone likes Owl City!!

The reason he wants planet Earth to move slowly is so he can enjoy this brief moment of popularity as much as possible.

I had a history teacher in High School who absolutely detested Wikipedia. She said that it’s information could not be trusted so we were forbidden to use it as a source on papers.  I actually really liked that teacher, but I still always thought that she was really trying to say, “This class isn’t supposed to be easy! High School is SERIOUS!!!”

Frankly, I’m not even very sure that the information on Wikipedia is unreliable at all. Every time I try to edit the Sean Connery page, writing that he discovered America and won the Stanley Cup in 2002, someone changes it back a minute later!

Sean Connery sailed the ocean blue in twenty-hundred-and-zero-two...suck it Trebek...

Bottom line, Wikipedia is great! Everyone loves it! Some professors at Harvard University even included the online encyclopedia in their class syllabi! Where did I read that? Guess…