Many people are choosing to find information online rather than in books. Is this development positive or negative?

An increasing

number

of people nowadays choose to seek

information

and answers to their queries online, rather than to seek the same using books. I view

this

change as a positive development as far as ease of accessibility is concerned.

However

,

this

change has had a detrimental effect on the trustworthiness of

information

available.

First

and foremost, with a constant and rapid increase in the

number

of people with access to the internet, the entirety of the vast collection of human

knowledge

is now available at people’s fingertips.

In contrast

to books, which may be limited in their range and scope, the internet has enabled people to obtain

knowledge

, to the extent and detail that they may desire, whenever they may choose to do so.

This

choice is not constrained by geographical location or by time, only by their connectivity and desire.

For example

, there has been a

rise

in the

number

of people enrolling in online courses to enhance their skills and

knowledge

throughout the world. A large majority of these students are located in developing countries, many of whom seek to gain instruction of the highest standard, and unlike the age of books, are not restricted to the options locally available to them.

However

, along with the stated benefit, the drawback of people turning to the internet for answers is a

rise

in the prevalence of inaccurate, misleading and factually incorrect

information

. Unlike books, and the content contained therein, which goes through several stages of scrutiny before being published,

information

available online is not scrutinised in a similar manner.

This

has led to the

rise

of incorrect

information

being disseminated, either erroneously or purposefully with a

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an animal that produces gametes (spermatozoa) that can fertilize female gametes (ova)

male

-

fide

intent to spread misinformation. As an example, with the general elections

for

Suggestion

in

the Indian republic fast approaching, there has been a marked

rise

in the

number

of articles and posts on various online platforms, with factually incorrect and often polarising

information

. The intent behind

such

publications, appears to be, to sway the electorate using misinformation campaigns. To conclude, I would like to state that the increasing preference of people to seek

knowledge

online is a positive development, as it reduces the barriers to gain learning and improves access to

information

.

However

, the same comes with the drawback of leading to a

rise

in factual errors and

spread

Suggestion

the spread

of misinformation due to a lack of scrutiny.