What Does One Wiki?

The general feeling I got from reading the blogs of others, and from briefly touching on Wikipedia in class, was that the website was by no means a scholarly source, but was a great way to introduce one's self to a subject. The information is to be taken with a grain of salt, but we can gain some background knowledge on a topic so that we aren't completely ignorant when attempting to discuss it. This is my own personal ideology, and I was under the impression that most other Wikipedia users approached the site in the same fashion. All it took was a Google search to find out that maybe I'm a bit naive and Wikipedia is popular for other reasons. At the end of August of 2009, "Wiki" turned out to be the most searched for subject on the page.

I guess that isn't too surprising, several people are curious as to what these types of sites are about, what their policies are, or how they can hold up in court cases. But what the hell is with the rest of the pages that were visited?? If I combine "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Transformers 2" as the same subject, they have more hits than "World War II" or "Current events". I love CGI, but I refused to see the movie just for the mere fact that Michael Bay's name is stamped on there (And on a side note, I am taking a chance on next year's Nightmare on Elm Street remake, despite the fact that Bay is a producer. If he puts unncessary explosions in there too, I may become a Wikipedia vandal myself), but no matter how beautiful people tell me the movie is, I won't rent it, wiki it, google it, anything. For a page that I thought was a source of information, that is what it was used for? Gaining introductory knowledge to a complex subject doesn't seem to include Megan Fox running from robots. Perhaps Social Studies classrooms around the globe are not challenging their students enough that they have to run to their computers and look things up?

And of course, then there's the more depressing, but somewhat expected result. "Sex" came in at #21, "vagina" at #36, penis at #51, etc. etc., and last but not least, "pornography" just eked in at #100. Wikipedia's team can do all they want to try and add some credibility to their pages, but it appears that the age old adage regarding the Internet's true purpose has branched out into the encyclopedia where everyone is an author.