The Internet and Social Media has become the mouthpiece for just about everyone with a computer or smart phone, including those people who may have never had a voice. It’s (usually) completely up to you how big of a voice you have, you can sit quietly and “like”, “post”, “blog”, “comment” or whatever through Social Media or you can become an overnight “internet sensation” more popular than the last “big thing” because you can play the violin whilst standing on your head and your YouTube clip “goes viral”! Or, you can be a politician (who according to Wikipedia, is well educated and knowledgeable) who references Wikipedia in an interview and whether welcomed or not, has become the current internet sensation (search for his name, you receive 103,000,000 results).
Wikipedia, for those of you who are new to the Internet, is a free online Encyclopedia that contains information on just about everything you could ever want to know about. However, anyone can edit, contribute to or remove the data that’s contained on the site. So, whilst there is an endless supply of information available on the site and just about everyone with a smart phone or computer has visited it, it’s not considered acceptable reference material. Just ask any teacher, high school or university student.
You don’t just become an internet sensation, you also become today’s (and probably tomorrows), headlines as well as fodder for public scrutiny. However, everyone has the right to an opinion, whether educated, informed or otherwise and the great part about living in Australia, is that we have the right to voice those opinions. Similarly, it’s the “Australian thing to do” to challenge them.
Here are a couple of opinions that you may find interesting and entertaining!
http://tinyurl.com/obmj6qo written by boryssnorc.com
http://tinyurl.com/n5y6tco written by Tony Wright for The Sydney Morning Herald