Wikipedia Faces a Generational Disconnect Crisis
Wikipedia celebrates its 25th anniversary this month as the internet’s most reliable knowledge source. Yet behind the celebrations, a troubling pattern has developed: the volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers. The same institution founded on the principle of easy and open community collaboration could now be proving unmovable—trapped between the need to adapt and an institutional resistance to change.
Wikipedia faces a generational disconnect crisis as its volunteer community resists adapting to newer audiences' media habits. The encyclopedia's format remains text-heavy, unlike the visual media favored by younger generations. The Wikimedia Foundation's experiment with AI-generated summaries was swiftly rejected by the community, highlighting resistance to change. The volunteer base is aging, and the sustainability of unpaid labor is becoming a concern as AI companies profit from Wikipedia's content without contributing back.
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