Photo courtesy of U Texas.
By Benny Morales, Staff Reporter
Over the past couple of years of being a student, I found myself engaging in vast amounts of media everyday. Finding information on the internet is something that takes trial and error. You could stumble upon a website that has no credibility and will never know if what you are reading is authentic. I have decided that I will just do all the hard work for you, showing you some of the top websites I use the most to obtain information besides social media.
Starting off with Google! Just kidding, my favorite website to use at the moment for anything related to: entertainment, gossip between celebrities, politics, and just about anything else is Buzzfeed. Their website has a vast majority of resources that shares information on stories and gives insight on what other people have to say about it. It is great for finding answers to speculations that you have heard on social media and other platforms.
Coming in at number two is Reddit. Although Reddit can be extremely helpful, it is also possible to get lost in its copious amounts of information that its users provide. You can find information on just about anything with reddit.
Although, you need to make sure the people who are posting the information, have a credible standing. You can usually tell if someones credible depending on their following, comments, and likes. For instance, if a user with only a few followers and posts share something that is breaking news, the likelihood of you believing it should be minimal due to the account not having a substantial amount of people agree with by commenting or liking the post. One would particularly use this website to find information on, free textbook links, betting odds, free streaming sites, and unreleased music, that is hard to find in other places.
Another great website is Wired. Wired has information for just about anything that involves news. Whether that be tech savvy equipment, ideas, or even business related. The website is extremely informative primarily in upcoming technologies, as well as how some of the equipment works and where to find them. The information that is displayed can tell you what some products do, where to find them, and sometimes the benefits that come from the products. One intriguing feature that is on this website is the science section. The science sections discuss newly found information that is being discovered around the world. This feature is great because it provides many photos that are hard to find elsewhere as well as other information like opinions and thoughts about the discoveries.
As a student, Ads Of The World is remarkably helpful. Ads of the world allows the viewer to stay up to date with what companies around the world are doing. This website displays ads as soon as they come out as well as some ads that do not make it to national television. Now I know what you are thinking, “Why would I want to watch advertisements for free?” well the truth is, it is very beneficial to know what the companies around you are doing. Special offers as well as other beneficial qualities come from watching advertisements.
The Verge, much like Wired, is one of my favorite websites to obtain information regarding technological inventions and findings. Here you can find just about anything regarding the creators, the science behind the technology, and my favorite and most useful tab; reviews. For us students, we consistently use and cycle through various technologies, so having the best up to date tech is what we all strive for. The Verge is a handy website when trying to figure out what version or model type of a product works best for you.
Below is a survey that was conducted online for random students regarding their favorite websites to use out of the five. Reddit and Buzzfeed were extremely close, although Reddit surpasses Buzzfeed by one extra vote. Meanwhile, Wired, Ads of the world, and The Verge did not even come close. Since SurveyMonkey is anonymous, it is difficult to ask the participants questions as to why they chose the websites they did, although they did leave comments when filling out the survey.
One participant discussed how they enjoy using Reddit because they have information on any topic one can think of. “Reddit is like my google, I enjoy using it because I can navigate it so easily and find anything I need to find.”
Another participant discussed why they enjoyed using Buzzfeed. “Buzzfeed is like another instagram for me. I enjoy scrolling through the feed that pops up at random.”
For Wired, one commented on how it engages them to know what is going on in the technological side of the world. “Wired.com is still somewhat a new website that I have been visiting although I love the feed that comes up. It’s fun and entertaining to read.
The Verge got many comments that were quite similar to wired.com, one comment said, “I’ve been using wired.com for years now and can honestly say it’s one of my favorites.”
As for adsoftheworld.com, not too many people left many comments due to the interactions, although one said “I never knew about this website until I came across this survey, and I like it better than the other ones because it’s interesting to see what companies are doing.”
