Rise of Plagiosphere & Ecstasy of Influence

Every time I type a paper for school, I constantly have the thought running in my mind, “What if this was already said?”. I would never intentionally plagiarize in my school work or in any other type of writing, first of all because the consequences are harmful and second because I have no need to. I am able to read something and summarize my own thoughts about the work, but what if how I summarize something or the ideas I acquire from a certain work I have read, is the same way someone else already has? In this never ending world called the Web, people are constantly posting their thoughts and ideas, and we are bound to run into someone who feels the same way we do. The article called “The Rise of Plagiosphere”, mentions the Turnitin program that many professors have begun using. Yes, this is a good idea if a student is stupid enough to copy an entire text and say it was his own words, but when it comes to small phrases, I hope they don’t think I am plagiarizing because ultimately I am probably going to have the same thing to say as someone else once did. It’s almost impossible not to plagiarize some one’s words, because someone somewhere has probably already thought or said what you already have. The article titled, “Ecstasy of Influence”, depicts how some newer pieces of work, such as movies, cartoons, and books, have been influenced by older works. I see no problem with this. The world would never grow and improve without people sharing their ideas and learning from others to be inspired to contribute their own thoughts. Our ideas must start somewhere, and somewhere is most likely form someone else’s thoughts. This article also talks about the commons, which is something that everyone can share. I see our blogs and any one else’s blogs like the commons. We are free to express our own ideas and thoughts and learn from others without being worried about how we say something and if it has already been said. I think we must have caution when writing on the Web, we must realize what we say will be seen by others and might even be used by others. But isn’t that the whole reason we write? Don’t we want people to hear us and take something out of it? No, I don’t want someone to take credit for an entire essay I wrote, but if they see something they like and can expand on it, that’s the reason I wrote it in the first place.