The Hazards of Internet Research

“Information is not knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Yesterday, on one of the forums to which I belong, someone asked a question I thought I could answer. I knew the answer to the first part of the question, so I answered it. The second part, however, I wasn’t sure about, so I went to a source I thought to be knowledgeable on the subject. They sent a response, which I posted to the loop.

Someone else, far more informed than I on the topic, posted a response correcting mine. Curious, I went back to my source and asked more questions. Turns out my source found the answer they’d given me Wikipedia. And we all know how accurate Wikipedia is.

Why am I telling you how I embarrassed myself on a loop with over a thousand members? Because this incident reminded me of something very important to writers: the Internet is not always the best source of information, particularly if you’re getting that information from people. True, there are experts out there who are willing to give you answers in their particular field. But there are also many self-proclaimed “experts” who will present as fact something that might not be. And this doesn’t even take into consideration that on some topics, opinions vary widely.

Research is vital to what we do. Readers hate it when we get things wrong. I’m not telling you not to use the Internet for research. It’s our most convenient and powerful tool as writers. There’s a great deal of wonderful, accurate information out there. It’s our job to sort through it and properly vet any information, whether we use it in books or to answer questions on a loop.

We owe this to our readers, who expect a certain level of professionalism from us. I know when I find a glaring factual error in any novel I’m reading, it jerks me right out of the story and makes it hard for me to continue reading the book. If I can’t trust the author to get easily verified facts straight, why should I believe in the rest of the story?