Lauren's 303 Multimedia Writing Blog

Plagiarism, as far as I can tell, has always been looked at as a bad thing. It is disgraceful to steal others ideas and present them as your own ideas. Today, schools even implement tools such as Turn it In, to make sure that their students only produce work that contains their original ideas, and not those copied from whatever sources they looked at.

But that brings up a question. Are the ideas that they produce "originally" really theirs? To some extent, we are all exposed and shaped by what is around us. Our ideas, hopes, dreams. Are they really original? So many times I've come up with a thought and then stopped and wondered, "How many people around the world just stopped and thought of that? Did anyone else? Or am I the only one that thinks that way?"

The reality of it is, I can't be the only one that thinks a certain way. And the same can be said for those writing papers, or original works. People often ask famous creators, "What was your influence?" Their influences helped them to create whatever it is they made. Is this plagiarism? Because it seems without these influences, it stands to reason they never would have created what they did in the first place. It's a really sticky issue to address when you look at it intently. Because of the Internet, and the thousands upon thousands of things that people are influenced by that they never could have gotten their hands on without the Internet, plagiarism is evolving. Just like technology evolves, so does plagiarism. And I think that perhaps one day, it won't be viewed so negatively. But, it's only a thought; and it probably isn't an original one.