Speech

Computers are a useful tool but you need to be careful with it.

Do you use a computer? Do you use it a lot? When a teacher asks you something do you Google it? The Internet is a very useful tool, but you need to take care because not everything on there is true and accurate.

Firstly let's assume your using the Internet, for those of you that don't switch off yet because what I'm telling you is still important.

The first links on a search are almost always sponsored which means they have paid Google a search engine to have their site come up first. A search engine is a site that allows you to search the World Wide Web for sites that might be able to help you. It does this by using key words which it scans very quickly across the whole internet Not every site it finds will be able to help you. For example when I typed in persuasive speeches I got 613,000 hits in a quarter of a second. Evening the first 10, I only looked at thereabout of those three, two of them wanted me to pay money for speeches.

Do you go to the first website you see and assume that it's correct? How do you know if something is true? When you look at a link on a search using Google you will see underneath the link, written in black, a brief summary of what is on the site or a short piece taken from the site. This can help you work out weather it's worth looking at. Also underneath that, in green is the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which can also help you, decide whether it is worth looking at.

When I was going to look up what URL means I was going to put down “What does URL mean” but my dad said you only need to put down "URL meaning" as the search engine only searches for key words Which it scans very quickly across the whole internet not every site it finds will be able to help you.

Never assume that the first website is definitely true, you always need to check other websites. If you find three sites saying the same thing it's probably true. If you find something on a well known site you can assume it is true, for example National Geographic is bound to be correct, whereas arthurtheaardvark.com might not be.

I think that the Internet is a wonderful tool to research information, and now I know that I need to use the Internet wisely other wise I could end up looking like a fool. So the next time you use the Internet think about were you're looking and what your doing or the fool could be you.