I’d say the most valuable skill you can develop in this day and age is to determine the credibility of internet articles. To help do that, think of these questions:
- First and foremost, does the site with the articles have any reason to have me believe the articles? Will they gain something if I read and agree with their articles? This indicates that there might be an ulterior motive to giving out articles, and also means the quality of the articles may not be high or may be skewed in the company’s favour.
– Does the website look non professional? Are there a lot of typos? Are there ads everywhere? These are signs that the website may not be credible. Credible websites often have some money to pay for a design, but this is not a sure fire guarantee. Many typos, however, is a strong indication that the content may not be of high quality.
– Look at the article itself. Do they provide links to the information they base the article on? Evaluate those websites as well for their credibility. Do they give exact data? If neither is true, or if the source is “personal experience” I become very suspicious of what they say. Examine the article’s contents and compare them to what you hold true regarding Science, Humanity, etc.
– Is the author prominent either in their field of study (somewhat uncommon to see online) or does the author have an information page talking about themselves? One of the keys to credibility is to easily identify who the author is, as credible authors often solicit comments regarding their studies.
– Finally, do some Google research and find out what other people are saying about the subject.
So let’s look at this Moon Phase article against the checklist.
1. The site is a hair boutique. It makes sense that they would publish articles about hair. But would they publish negative articles (or articles disproving what they discuss)? I don’t think so. So I am suspicious from the start. Compare to a site like CNN which has nothing to gain if people believe or disbelieve their articles.
2. Design is decent, I didn’t see any typos, they do have ads but not everywhere. This neither increases nor decreases my suspicion
3. The article is 100% personal experience and Astrology, neither of which fit my personal beliefs of Science, the scientific method and data. At this point I conclude that relevant to me, the article is discredited. But let’s continue down the list.
4. The website does not seem to offer a bio for the author. Luckily I was able to use Google and found her Wikipedia page. It seems her only claim to fame is in running that website and authoring over 2500 original articles, and a few contributions in a book. However it does seem she has attended schooling relevent to cosmetology, though as far as I can see her only official accreditation is that of “hair braider”. At this point I give back some credibility to her and thus the website. But why if she has a Wikipedia page, does her site that she’s run for over 10 years and having written 2500 articles, and published content in books, not have her bio on her most popular site? To me this is very strange.
5. My google search reinforces my previous conclusion. The majority of others saying positive things about lunar cutting also believe in Astrology. I support the scientific conclusion that astrology does not affect our lives in the teeniest bit, it is an unscientific premise. Many search results indicate that “lunar cutting” is absolutely a myth and I have to agree with them.
The great thing about the Internet is anyone can have a website! The worst thing about the Internet is… that anyone can have a website. Now more than ever, it’s important to be skeptical about things you read unless you can verify its content. Many people want you to believe non-true things so that they can profit.