This is a speech I prepared for my High School Forensics Team, for an event called Oratory.
Did you know that there was a German octopus who predicted the winner in over a dozen soccer matches during the 2010 World Cup? Have you heard of the World War II battle in which American and German forces fought together at a medieval castle against other Germans? What about how Ron and Rand Paul were the first father-and-son to serve together in United States Congress? I found all of that useless trivia from a website that claims to receive 500 million unique page views per month and which has information on over 30,000,000 subjects in over 250 languages.
From the very beginning of our curious brains’ quest for knowledge on the internet, we are told one, ONE, cardinal rule about our online research- “Wicky is icky.” This simple statement illustrates a growing problem that Americans have with trust, a problem evident in our politics and our personal lives. Wikipedia, as many of you know, is entirely volunteer-written. It is the responsibility of good samaritans to make sure that what is arguably the most relied on source in the history of the planet stays... reliable. How is that possible? Just a few thousand dedicated people around the globe are capable of providing so much information to the other 7 billion? You see, it makes sense that teachers hesitate so much when it comes to the use of Wikipedia. But, by examining this all-powerful resource, we realize it really is far better than it was ever thought it could be. If you look at an article, you’ll see hundreds of footnotes, each of which indicates a normal citation. And, having done some digging and quite a bit of editing myself, these aren’t all going to such deplorable resources as Youtube videos, blogs and, possibly the worst of the bunch, Fox News. In fact, nearly everything on Wikipedia is cited and nearly every cite is to a reliable source. And, if it isn’t? Feel free to help change the world by clicking that “edit” button on the top right of your screen. Google an article from CNN, Forbes, the Department of Defense (if their website is up), or even a University study. That simple edit can change everything. Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you one more statistic- during the month of October 2013, the article for President Barack Obama was viewed over 650,000 times. In 2013, the article is on track to be viewed over 6 million times. Each minor little tweak affected the thoughts of thousands. Each little edit, that little ripple, arguably changed the world. That change is trust. Let’s go deeper by discussing why Wicky IS NOT icky, the history behind the loss of trust in America and some solutions to this loss of trust.
I had the opportunity recently to read the thank you letter Wikipedia sends out to everyone who donates to it, written by Executive Director Sue Gardner, and I feel it gives a great look into the website.
“People tell me they donate to Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it because even though it's not perfect, they know it's written for them. Wikipedia isn't meant to advance somebody's PR agenda or push a particular ideology, or to persuade you to believe something that's not true. We aim to tell the truth, and we can do that because of you. Exactly as it should be.
“ Your contribution keeps Wikipedia available for an ambitious kid in Bangalore who’s teaching herself computer programming. A middle-aged homemaker in Vienna who’s just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. A 10-year-old in San Salvador who’s just discovered Carl Sagan.
“And if you're interested, you should try adding some new information to Wikipedia. If you see a typo or other small mistake, please fix it, and if you find something missing, please add it. There are resources here that can help you get started. Don't worry about making a mistake: that's normal when people first start editing and if it happens, other Wikipedians will be happy to fix it for you.”
So, what does that tell us? What can society learn from this little website, started by a man from Alabama named Jimbo Wales? We learn about a sense of community. A sense of trust. And that might be the most important lesson America can be taught today. In fact, as a September 2013 study from Gallup reported, Americans trust in our government is lower than it has been in Gallup’s 40 years of taking the poll. What’s worse is that another Gallup study reported that Americans trust in each other is far and away the lowest it has been in half a century. Parents are no longer letting their kids play outside after dark, or letting them walk down to the store on their own. As Americans become more introverted and secretive, relying more on technological communication than face-to-face communication, people no longer believe what their neighbors say. And I believe that it goes without saying that there are many, many negative implications. In fact, Linda Wasmer, a psychologist for Psychology Today argues that a lack of trust in our neighbors may have negative affects on our health. Americans need to learn to trust in one another.
Two more questions- where did that trust go? How does society get it back?
While researching this topic, and looking for this evolution of trust, one time period came up consistently. Every single article/study/poll that I looked at compared the 1960’s to the 1990’s. Sometime in those few short decades, America lost it’s moxy.
Of course, the America of 1960 is a bit different that than of today. In 1960, the oldest of the Baby Boomer Generation were starting high school. A young, handsome New Englander named John F. Kennedy announced his campaign for the presidency. Astronauts were the idols of a generation bring with them a new age of technology, complete with computers and corvettes at our side.
Yet, just 30 years later, that sense of optimism seemed to disappear. And it is difficult to find just one reason why. Many people point to events earlier in the period, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War or, most notably, Watergate. But, in those same early years there was also the Moon Landing, Civil Rights (which certainly helped with our little trust issues), and 4 great years with Richard Nix... Ok, maybe not the last one. If you look later, sure you see the Iranian Hostage Crisis, but you also see 8 years of Ronald Reagan, who, if nothing else, was a seemingly honest and decent man who, if nothing else, would have given the nation back it’s trust. I simply don’t understand what happened to America, but I do think there is some hope- some ways out of this mess. I offer 3 solutions- 3 key ideas that, if stuck to, will greatly help America.
One- be more politically active. A Pew Research Poll spread out over 60 years found that the percentage of people who trust the government fell from 73% in 1960 to 19% in 2013. 1995 was the last time that trust was under 20%. When you can’t trust your government, it becomes difficult to trust your neighbors. If you don’t feel you’re financially sound, not physically safe and not inherently secure, then you are probably not trusting. While making our government better is not going to fix all of our issues, it will go a long way, not to mention the other benefits of being politically active.
Two- Be educated. A shocking Gallup poll conducted between 2008 and 2009 which involved over 250,000 Americans found that the higher the income and education one has, the more likely they were to trust their neighbors. The poll asked a simple question- “If you lose your wallet with $200 in it and your neighbor finds it, do you trust them to return it?” Half of households with incomes that were under 24,000 dollars a year said they would trust their neighbors to return their wallet if they lost it, compared with 82% among people making $90,000 or more. Less than half of those without a high school degree or equivalent said they trust their neighbors to return a lost wallet, compared with 81% of people with an advanced degree. Being educated and wealthy lead to being intelligent and trustworthy, as the study found. Taking the extra couple of years to get through school, or even reading another Wikipedia article every now and again can make a massive difference on how you treat and think of others in regular life.
Three- Trust Wikipedia. Wikipedia, in many ways, is the largest Community Service Project ever produced. Wikipedia has content that is both more accurate and more inclusive than the Encyclopedia Britannica, it arguably does more with language barriers than The Rosetta Stone, and it is also one of the most accessible resources humans have ever had. And it is all built by people like you and me. People who, despite being intelligent and hard-working, would not be generally considered an encyclopedic writer. People who, despite having good hearts and good intentions, might be a little bias. People who would never have the opportunity to change the world if not for Wikipedia. Yet, some how those writers give more trustworthy information than a certain “leading news agency.” They take advanced topics, and make them understandable for the general public. When considering all the content creators, the champions of the technology superhighway, the teenage boy who managed to slip the word “weed” into the introduction of an article on Barack Obama can easily be forgiven. People who don’t completely understand the importance of the project can be forgiven. Because once other Americans understand that- once they understand the importance of community, trust and knowledge- not only will Americans become the most trustworthy people, not only will Americans become the most intelligent, but we will lay claim to one of the greatest things ever created.