According to the United Nations Agency, more than 3 billion people out of 7 billion around the world utilize the internet. With just a click of a button, those 3 billion people can find an answer to any question they have. “How many people live on Earth?”, or “How many people use the internet?” are just a couple of examples. It only takes Google an average of .30 seconds to retrieve the answers from millions and millions of websites. However, the half a second search might require a person to spend hours looking for the most credible website. Phillip Lenssen’s image accurately presents the idea that people cannot expect the initial results they receive from a search to be accurate or truthful, but in actuality, it requires and promotes one…show more content… In the image, the man is criticizing a student for using Google as his source for obtaining his information. As thought by the man and most people, the internet is not known for its credibility, and it is something one does not want use as a way to back up a claim. However, it is not the internet who is at fault for its false information. One of the main reasons for its lack of reliability is its overflow of advertising. The internet is slowly being taken over by advertisers, who are consciously controlling the viewers of the internet by indirectly pushing them towards a website. When a person searches a specific topic on Google, many companies or people pay to have their results appear first. “AdWords” was created to regulate and take advantage of a person’s topic of search. If a person needed to find a reliable insurance company, the word “insurance” would trigger an ad for an insurance that had…show more content… In the image, the man is questioning the student because he most likely thinks that his information is going to come from one unreliable website the student first clicked on. Although the internet cannot be reliable at first glance, it can provide amazing information once a person can look past the advertisers or distractions, and critical thinking is applied. In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, three prisoners have been tied up in a cave, facing a wall since birth only able to see the shadows reflected from a fire behind them. As a result, they believed that the shapes of darkness is reality since it is the only thing they have been exposed to. Socrates uses this story to explain to a student that people are blinded by what they think is the truth, but it could in fact be an illusion. In this case, the unreliable websites and information on the internet is the illusion. One day, one of the prisoners is freed and slowly makes his way out of the cave and he follows the light to the outside and realizes that there is so much more to the world than just shapes and shadows. Socrates explains that “whether true or false, [his opinion] is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort” (Plato 1122). Plato’s words still speak truth in the today’s modern society. People need to find the reliable source and begin to dig
