Common internet misconceptions

Last updated 11:23 26/09/2012

I'm that insufferable kind of person who can't help but correct people. Often the first impression people get of me starts with "Well, actually". As you would expect, this happens a whole lot with internet related things, so I made a list, kind of like this one. Please, add your pedantic tics in as well.

- "The internet and the world wide web are the same thing." Perhaps the most common misunderstanding, and an understandable one. The internet is the system that connects everything, and the world wide web (www of course) is the part of it that you access on your browser - like right now. When you send an email (well, if you aren't using webmail) you are just using the internet, not the wide world web.

- "Your Facebook will get you fired!" Possible of course, but unlikely. Despite moral panics to the contrary, it is quite unlikely you are sharing stuff with 'Public', and if you do it will say 'Public' below everything you post. People can probably just see your profile picture, cover photo, your likes, and maybe a few questions you have answered. Don't get me wrong, you should still be careful, and checking what your profile looks like to the public is a good idea. Always be careful with what ends up online, but keep in mind your boss can't just hack your Facebook or demand to be your friend, and even if s/he does, there's an easy fix.

- "Spotify gives back to the artist." Technically true, but to the tune of less than a cent per play.

- "Tumblr is full of porn!!!" Around 4% of Tumblr is porn. Tumblr is full of One Direction gifs.

- "Facebook sells your data to advertisers." This one is only kind of wrong. Facebook does use the vast amount of information it collects about you to show you ads that it deems more relevant, and it sells the adspace this segmented audience (think 'males 18-24 in Wellington who have liked pages about live music') sees to advertisers, but an advertiser can't just buy your email address or anything.

- "Wikipedia is incredibly unreliable." As I have written about before, Wikipedia is excellent for background research if you check the citations. It isn't perfect, but non controversial/agreed upon topics it is pretty damn good, once again, if you check the citations.

There are many many more misconceptions floating around, add your own or mock how much I care about these things below.