Week 7 a.k.a. The Golden Rule Of The Internet

Throughout the history of Internet, people have tried to set up some rules which help prevent online conflicts. This is Week 7 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to express my opinion about one of the Virginia Shea's "Ten Commandments".

I would like to start off with saying that all ten commandments are extremely important and valid to this day, despite being published in 1995. Although the Internet surely grants us some level of anonymity, sticking to these commandments will help one to stay polite and make his Internet experience a pleasant one. Furthermore, I think that it is only fair to suggest that these rules are dictated by common sense. That being said, I will focus my attention on the sixth rule, "Share expert knowledge".

I think that the thing that makes the Internet so great is that it can be a source of infinite knowledge. In today's world it is possible to learn everything from the Internet, starting from knitting or cooking and ending with mechanics, programming or rocket science. But sadly enough, not every source can be trusted because not everyone who posts something in the Internet follows the simple rule - share expert knowledge, which makes the skill do distinguish between trustworthy source and not so trustworthy one so valuable.

To illustrate my point, I will bring two examples, both from YouTube. The great thing about YouTube is that a lot of professionals turn to this platfrom to share their knowledge and simultaneously advertise their business while doing so. These are channels, whose owners own, for example, a garage or a service centre in real life and have something to show and something to teach, channels like VLASOV or Notebooker. In their videos they share their expertise, explain how a lot of things work or how to fix them, give useful tips. However, not all of them are trustworthy and some people like to show off when in reality they have nothing to actually show off. They present it as if they were giving legit tips while in fact they are teaching their viewers and followers wrong thus violating the Virginia Shea's sixth commandment.

I think that is essential for these people to understand that what they do is wrong and it may mislead trustful people. I'm happy that there are channels on YouTube and overall sources in the Internet which teach things correct way since most of the things I know today I know only thanks to them.