The storage of information has been facilitated since the advent of technology. However, the issue of knowledge currently being stored online in lieu of in reading materials as it was in the past has sparked heated debate. From my standpoint, the drawbacks of this contemporary trend are greatly overshadowed by its benefits.
It is inevitable that storing knowledge on the Internet can have a number of downsides. Data archived online heavily hinged upon the Internet and power. Should a connection issue or a blackout occur, information stored on computers cannot be accessed. On the contrary, learners will still have the opportunity to acquire knowledge through books even in those cases. What is more, information recorded on the Internet may be devoid of authenticity in comparison with that in printed copies for the validation process of information conducted by book publishers is more meticulously supervised. This can lead people to gain fallacious insights which might be detrimental to their mindset and perception. For example, Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia, allows people to liberally adjust the data on its website. However, numerous people have taken advantage of this policy to spread misinformation, most tangibly about celebrities.
Nevertheless, the benefits of storing knowledge online are far more glaring. The storage of information via the Internet can be unlimited for computer system resources are virtual and can simply multiply. In contrast, the materials for printing copies are in short supply due to rising environmental concerns pertaining to paper production. On top of that, learners are now able to search and classify a wealth of information within just a few clicks. This convenience can hardly be achieved with a book, which has a myriad of pages and no intelligent extensions.
To encapsulate, although archiving knowledge on the Internet admittedly raises several concerns, I would contend that the potential benefits, such as unrestrained storage availability and helpfulness, are more significant.