When it was first introduced to the internet, Wikipedia soared in popularity. People became enticed with the fact that they could edit articles on a collaborative encyclopedia; in actuality people could add in their own “two cents” about a subject of interest. However, in more recent years Wikipedia’s growth has come to a cautious halt. With over 3 million articles stored in their gigantic database, it comes as no surprise to me that the general public has lost interest in adding or editing the already lengthy and, as best we know, accurate subject matters. Yet this phenomenon of halted un-exponential web-based growth has left Wikipedia’s site runners/developers flabbergasted. Could this be due to the fact that it has become increasingly harder for people to get their edits seen on Wikipedia? Is this do to the fact that there is already so much information posted, in part by scholarly individuals, that most of the public just accept it all as truth? Has the addition of editors to Wikipedia which now correct the public’s edits on articles caused doing so less attractive to most? Have people generally stopped using Wikipedia because some of the crap on there is a hoax and is not worth anyone’s time?
In my mind in order to dig deeper into why this is happening one must take the time to step back and think of Wikipedia as more than just a website. Think of Wikipedia in terms of being a functioning part in society; a part of our culture, our morals and values, the very things that have historically group masses of people together. Now in this sense, Wikipedia has crossed so many thresholds. They have intertwined together different societies into one large information database that stores the collectives thoughts instead of one person or publishers direction. Why then have users stopped adding or editing their greatest areas of expertise to be seen and understood by the world? In my opinion, the downfall of Wikipedia is simple, it has gotten too big! Perhaps there is really no way for any one place on this great green Earth to grow exponentially, even if the place is located on the internet. I do believe Wikipedia has proven useful for finding out answers to everyday questions that need no further research than a skimmed reading. However I also think there is a highly likely possibility that Wikipedia will become a thing of the past; a reference to this time in history and how our generation started going about providing masses of people with a central location for editable information.
