Posts by Tag

Tag: research

The Psychology of Gossip

Posted by Katherine Swanson

I have a confession. I am completely addicted to celebrity gossip. It all began when I bought my first copy of US weekly. I'm not sure how old I was but a cover story about the original "Bennifer" seduced me and I have been an addict ever since. I love the "stars, their just like us!" page where on any given week you can see Tom Hanks pumping gas and Lauren from The Hills eating fro-yo. I love the bad fashions in the back where almost every week Courtney Love is photographed prancing around LA is some outrageous get up. Most of all I love the "Hot Stuff" section where I can always get my weekly fix of trash-tastic celebrity hook ups with stories like "K-Fed texts Lindsay!” (PS: I’m not making any of these up; I have actually read all these stories.)

Two years ago I developed a "tolerance" for my addiction and knew that I needed to kick it up to the next level. Sick of being out of the loop from Sunday until Thursday (Us Weekly was always put out at the local Jewel grocery store Thu ... more »

Posted: October 19, 2007 12:44 pm | 1 comment
Tags: 12 steps, article, celebrities, gossip, New York Times, psychology, research

Love, Hate, and Wikipedia

Posted by Christopher Markman

I've got a bone to pick with a recent article I read feature on Library stuff.

It's pretty simple. Wikipedia, love it or hate it, is not a monolithic entity. It's diverse by definition. That's the point. Information quality lies on a spectrum. Yes, there are vandals, yes, you can do silly things like cite an edit you yourself made. There are inherent flaws...

BUT

Making blanket statements like "[Wikipedia] ultimately lessens the quality of whatever you were trying to do" ignores the very nature of Wikipedia itself.

There are in fact some very high quality articles on Wikipedia. Not all of them. Some. But you'll only be able to say that through direct comparison with other sources.

Don't confuse Wikipedia with lazy academics. Go ahead and start your search with Wikipedia. Do the work, come back and make it better!

Posted: February 15, 2009 2:17 pm | 1 comment
Tags: digital culture, research, Wikipedia