Prompt: In the past, people stored knowledge in books. Nowadays people store knowledge on the internet. Do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

In recent times, the Internet has gradually substitute books for the purpose of knowledge storage. Although I am apprehensive about the repercussion accompanied by the benefits, I believe the upside of this trend outweighs the downside. Ċ The Internet is advantageous as a major medium of knowledge from various perspectives. First and foremost, people are released from carrying heavy paper books around and able to access without geographical boundaries anytime from their compact devices. This has a profound impact on pupils, especially those in their formative years, whose physical developments are no more hampered by the burden on their shoulders. Also, with the enormous amount of information available online, it only needs few clicks on search tools to precisely locate the citation we are looking for. Wikipedia as a salient example provides the expertise of all fields free to the public. Ċ On the other hand, the dismissal of printing, binding and distribution of paperbacks though save great deals of time and financial cost contributes to several outcomes. The most evident is the quality of information on websites. The craze of blogs and social media platforms, for instance, lower the gate for publishing ideas. While publishing books cost a fortune and only reliable contents will be invested by a publisher, a lot of web output lack reviews and peer checks. Furthermore, despite the limitations of a printed book, pirating becomes rampant and erodes the livelihood of academic researchers and creators in all realms. Ċ In conclusion, while gaining the conveniences of new media of know-how, the government and the public should be aware of the risk of unfair spreading of illegal and incompetent contents on networks and take bolder action to protect intelligent property.