Explore the Impact of the Internet on Plagiarism

About Plagiarism

20 Mar 2023

This guide will help you learn about the impact of the internet on the plagiarism problem and address the issue. 

Impact of the Internet on plagiarism

How Does The Internet Affect Plagiarism?

The role of social media, digital devices, and the Internet cannot be underestimated as one explores the cases of plagiarism and the challenges of the modern age of technology. It shows the negative impact of the Internet on plagiarism as college students, content creators, researchers, and even the average blog posters are being caught as the victims of dishonesty. Still, it's not entirely right to blame the Internet and technology for the rise of plagiarism, yet it cannot be denied that Internet has made it easier to find various content that would not be easily available in the past. As always, there are both pros and cons to everything. Let us break things down into five major aspects that show how exactly the Internet affects the cases of plagiarism and its spread through the digital realm:

  • Availability of Information Online. One should remember that before the Internet era, most researchers relied upon databases that have been available in private networks and in print. It has made detection of plagiarism relatively limited and most cases of plagiarism have been in anabiosis. Only when published papers have been compared via online detection methods, has it become evident that the cases of plagiarism (in various forms) have always been there.
  • Lack of Privacy. Another challenging aspect regarding the Internet and plagiarism is the lack of privacy that takes place as soon as a person places something online or uploads an essay to some website or a personal blog. It makes it much easier to copy and share information without giving due credit or finding out relevant data regarding the original author. It also leads to accidental plagiarism cases when a student does not know how to cite and paraphrase correctly.
  • Easier Plagiarism Detection Methods. Speaking of the good sides, Internet has made it easier to detect plagiarism even if it comes down to the simple use of Google or the internal university databases. It has not always been possible to copy and paste a certain paragraph from some research paper and see if there are similarities in the papers that have been published all over the world. You can also avoid plagiarism issues by turning to plagiarism detection tool like Fixgerald. This way, you can check your paper against thousands of published documents and millions of websites to ensure that you are not falling for accidental or even self-plagiarism. The best thing is that you can edit things right away and see how to fix the problem.
  • Research Databases Online. The Internet has made it possible to scan through the research papers and published materials on a specific subject. For example, you can turn to PubMed for your medical papers or approach Google Scholar by using relevant keywords. It makes it possible to look for related titles if you want to find information about the publisher or learn more about the author. You can research other papers or posts that have been created by an individual or a research group. The databases like Jstor provide you with the DOI, so you can reference certain scientific journals and avoid many types of plagiarism that can happen if you cite sources incorrectly. 
  • Social Media Originality Factor. The most serious impact of the Internet on plagiarism is the improper use of social media where thousands of posts are circulating the net without any references. This way, many users post certain data as their original creation and do not fear any punishment since there are portions, memes, video blogs, and all the possible types of information. Another challenge is the inability to find the original poster since people do reposts, and share what they like by altering the original information. It means that social media represents one of the primary menaces for plagiarism fighters. 

Contrary to popular belief and the clarity of the dangerous outcomes, many college students and bloggers do not realize why is plagiarism illegal and how it can affect a person. The most important is to keep up with the strict moral principles and use a plagiarism checker each time you need to submit an assignment or compose a post for your social media page. It will help you to avoid trouble and keep safe from copyright infringement and disputes. 

How to Deal With Plagiarism or Remedy For Plagiarism 

Dealing with plagiarism should start with the attitude to your research work and the other types of content that you create. Originality is the key to successful writing even when you have to work with the sources. Learning how the internet affects plagiarism, aim for the mixture of synthesized materials (not copying but quoting or paraphrasing) and your personal (author’s) voice. Such an approach will help you to avoid patched plagiarism and the cases when you fall into the verbatim trap. It means that using over three cited parts on a single page can easily put you in trouble if you are using direct citations. A much safer way is to implement paraphrasing and keep the original message by adding the author’s credentials as a reference.

Still, what about those cases when a student or a blogger doesn’t cheat and only uses certain phrases and paragraphs that make sense? It always depends on how much external information has been used and whether any references have been made. If it is a research paper, it may be necessary to use citations. They should not be there without a reason. You have to support your claims and explain how certain information helps to justify your ideas or methodology. Once you understand how this aspect works, it becomes much easier to detect and avoid plagiarism.

The majority of college students submit their papers online without proper editing or proofreading. That is why they often copy wrong in-text citations and do not follow their Works Cited / References entries. If this impact of the Internet on plagiarism is ignored when citing, you always end up with a type of unintentional plagiarism or cases when fake sources are being added to fill up the bibliography. While it’s not as bad as verbatim or direct (global plagiarism), it is always a problem that makes your paper wrong (think about the medical references that are absent or incorrect). it’s a serious issue that must be explored as the Internet makes it possible to check yourself before submitting your paper. 

How to Check Whether Your Paper Contains Plagiarism Fast?

The fastest way to check your content in terms of plagiarism with the help of the Internet is by turning to the helpful plagiarism detector. It works in a simple way. You only have to navigate towards Fixgerald sign in or log in and paste your text in a little window or upload the document. It is where the Internet shines to the full extent as it will only take about five minutes to check your content and avoid all types of plagiarism. Since you will deal with a plagiarism score ratio and the list of links that contain similarities, it is the safest and the best way to use the Internet to remedy all types of plagiarism. 

Internet and Plagiarism: Good or Bad? 

Summing things up, we can say that plagiarism and the Internet have both positive and negative impacts on the cases and the new detection methods that haven’t been available in the past. Once again, it all comes down to the attitude and the morals of a person. Even if you are living in an era where the Internet is not available, you always start with specific intentions as you compose your homework paper. If you are planning to cheat and use dishonest methods, the Internet can only make it easier, yet it will add specific dangers of being caught. Now, when you are staying honest, the technology can help you to keep clear and check your papers and creative writing in terms of originality and getting things fixed fast. When you can check things online and do proper editing and proofreading before you submit your paper, there is no reason to ignore the Internet and avoid using its benefits. Now it’s time to check your paper and keep yourself safe from harm!

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