The document describes a real life situation where the author was frightened after reading news online about a bomb blast in Pakistan. This made them question how reliable information online is. They investigated whether and to what extent the internet can be trusted. Through different perspectives like parents, teachers and personal, they concluded that while some information online is unreliable, the internet also provides reliable information and has benefits. It is important to be reasonable rather than emotional and to develop skills to identify good versus bad information online.

2. Real life situation.
 Hoax on the internet about bomb
blast in Pakistan
 Personally I was frightened and
panicked
 The first questions that came to my
mind were all about my family would
be, how bad is the disaster? What can
I do to help ? Are my aunts,
grandparents and all dead?

3. RLS continued.
 It’s significant to me because I use the internet 24/7 and
read a lot of news and information from it.
 It makes me doubt whether what I am reading is a joke as
well ?

4. Knowledge Issues.
 To what extent should we trust everything we read
on the internet ? (this is the one I am investigating)
 How can the spreading of false news be stopped on
the internet ?

5. To what extent should we trust the internet?
 The knowledge question is related to my first knowledge issue. It helps me
investigate the reliability of the information on the internet.

6. Ways of Knowing.
 Reason: Reason allows us to go beyond the immediate experience of our senses. It is closely linked to logic, the deducing of
valid conclusions from the starting points or the premises.. Reason as a way of knowing allows me to understand how my
reaction to the situation was reasonably correct and how logically the act of spreading false news on the internet is wrong.
 Emotion: Emotion is the product of natural processes with physiological causes and effects. There is somewhat
emotion present when dealing with the internet. Emotion as a way of knowing allows me evaluate that my reaction
was wrong and instead I should have seen beyond the emotional barriers.

7. Ways of knowing,
evidence and
counterclaims.
 Reason: A counter claim for this claim is that it can be seen from a rational perspective too. According to Tina Su, a
famous researcher on technology the internet can be helpful in daily life as a means for communication and
marketing and more recently also for things like online degrees and online banking etc. This contradicts the
conclusion my claim gave me, my counterclaim supports the side that the internet is very beneficial to us and can be
trusted.
 Emotion: According to data by John Alexander, humans have a tendency to rely on something that “seems” reliable.
This happens because the internet “exploits” our emotions and makes us confused about the meaning of something.
A counterclaim to this claim is that even though emotions can be exploited and lead to misinterpretation, in other
situations they give us the feeling of being human and help us judge situations in a way that reason can not.

8. Areas of Knowledge.
 Ethics : according to the Tok course guide, Ethics is acting in a
principled way, which involves honesty, fairness an
responsibility. Ethics is a part of this knowledge claim, because
it is ethically wrong to spread false news on the internet,
something that everyone can see, it can create confusion in the
mind of people, can create doubt of what to trust and like it did
in my situation it could make the person panic.
 Counter claim: Its is ethically wrong to spread false news on the
internet, where it is available to almost everyone. However it is
also ethically right when the internet helps millions of people in
their daily life and jobs and when it makes people stay close to
each other when far. The counter claim answers my KQ in the
totally opposite way then my claim does, it tells us that the
internet is trustable because it does things that are ethically
correct
 This helps me reach a mini conclusion which is that the internet
can be both ethically wrong and right, its just a matter of
perspective

9. Perspectives. (Parents)
 The increasing usage of the internet has made many parents worried about their children. According to a study by
THE ANNENBERG PUBLIC POLICY CENTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, about 75%
parents worry that their children might view sexually explicit objects online or might give out personal
information.
 This evidence supports my claim about internet reliability, these parents fear because the internet is
unreliable, the people with anonymous ID’s on the internet can be harmful. One of the few famous cases
for cyber bullying includes one that happened in 2012, where a girl called Amanda was blackmailed for a
picture of topless picture that she gave away In seventh grade when video calling and looking for friends,
she hanged her self a month after posting a video of her experience using flash cards.
 Personally I believe that it is the parents right to worry when their child uses the internet, because just like
any other piece of technology the internet is both good and bad, and has a limit to it. A child at a young
age does not have the ability to differentiate between right and wrong or in this case reliable and
unreliable. Just like Amanda as she flashed her breasts when the stranger manipulated her, she didn't’t
know if it was right or wrong.

10. Perspective (Teacher)
 As we have taken a step into the 21st century, the internet has started to become a increasingly larger part of our lives,
and the most recent place where it’s use is increasing is in schools.
 According to a research by The British Journal of Educational Technology it has been hard for teachers to
keep up with the dynamic change to the era of internet, one of the biggest problems is of plagiarism, here is a
example more personal to me. Here in GNIS, one of the main things we are taught not to do is to plagiarize
which means to steal someone else’s work or ideas, which is why citations exist, they show that you are giving
someone credit for their idea or work that you have used. To track and spot out plagiarism in the students
work, more and more schools including GNIS are using the program called Turn it in.
 Also some teachers at my school teach us what is good and what is poor information, some basics include to
check for the reputation and experience of the writer or composer and also see what website it is from, for
example wikipedia.com is counted as an unreliable source because anyone can write there, unlike a scholarly
pdf document with credentials.
 This is related to my knowledge issue because it shows us the internet can be used for theft as well because
an idea or work is worth a lot of time and money. Relating to the RLS I can conclude that from a teachers
perspective the Internet is dynamic and can easily manipulative, it can be used for things such as academic
dishonesty and could also lead the student in the wrong direction. This proposes a solution, which is to inform
the future generations, and teach them to differentiate between reliable and unreliable information on the
internet.

11. Perspective (Personal)
 Personally I think that the internet depending on what website the information is generally very reliable. However
there is some unreliable information on the net as well.
 What I think is that we should learn and teach how to find the good and ignore the bad.
 We shouldn’t blindly trust the internet because it is something created and also used by humans.
 There should be an age limit of the students or children that can use the internet, and if there is an objection to this
idea, children lower than a certain age should be supervised when using the internet.
 The ability of distinguishing between the truth and the false should be taught in schools, and so should the right use
of the internet, as it worries parents what their kids might do on the internet.

12. Conclusion
 In conclusion I investigated the knowledge question of whether or not we should trust the internet.
To support my knowledge claim I used Reason and Emotion as the ways of knowing and Ethics as
the area of knowledge. I have also shown different perspectives of my knowledge claim, to show a
range of opinions. From my investigation I conclude that the internet is a global and dynamic, there
is a lot of information on it that Is unreliable and probably made up information, which might have
misguided and mislead many, however if seen reasonably instead of emotionally I will also
conclude that the internet has helped us in many ways and has made our lives easier than before,
and it does have a lot of reliable information as well. Which is why I will put my statement this
way” We cannot trust the internet to some extent, because it does have pieces of unreliable
information; however it also has reliable information, it is a matter of ability that could get us
tangled between the wires of unreliable information.

13. Conclusions relation to
RLS.
My conclusion tells me that I should have been more
reasonable when I came across the news of a bomb
blast in Pakistan, I should have acted reasonably,
instead of emotionally.

14. Bibliography.
 http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/stop-exploiting-emotions1.html
 www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131503001350
 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131509000037
 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0007-
1013.2004.00414.x/abstract;jsessionid=4F6A544DCFA7D8CE46115FB95FA1B551.f04t03?deniedAcc
essCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/jturow/Report99.pdf
 nobullying.com/six-unforgettable-cyber-bullying-cases/

15. Thank you.