Reading Report 5: Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, etc.

This article, Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet, was very informative and eye opening. It is very interesting to learn that I've wrongly assumed websites are displaying facts when they may be counterfeit or fake. I only seem to question material on websites when they are very poorly designed and do not look professional. However, the article helped me realize how cautious I have to be when researching or reading material online because the internet is becoming more and more unreliable. Also, it is becoming easier to design websites, which makes it easier to make websites look professional and believable. I think that websites that might be counterfeit or not should be carefully monitored especially with the ongoing terrorist threats and war. These sites, that may be a joke, could potentially be taken seriously. These monitors should be warning internet browsers about certain fake sites so that people don't fall prey to the misinformation. Furthermore, it seems like a lot of these sites are purely for entertainment and humor rather than to deliberately misinform readers. For example, the article wrote about a site some creative writing students made up to make fun of current events; this is clearly harmless fun. The article talked about categorizing websites which would be extremely difficult to categorize all the pre-existing websites and try to keep up with every website added every day. Ultimately, I found the article rather monotonous because I can not imagine who would take the time to categorize the billions of websites out there and have everything remain up-to-date. It seems like an impossible feat. (WordCount: 268)