In previous versions of Wordpress, widgets did not exist. One had to manually edit code in order to make changes on the sidebar. Now there are widgets that make it a lot easier to edit the sidebar. Should you use those or not?
In order to use the Wordpress widgets, your theme has to have them coded into them. Most themes today have them but some do not. If you can use widgets, go to Appearance then click on Widgets. This will bring up a screen with some options. Most screens will show available options on the left with "Sidebar 1" on the right. Technically you could have a number of sidebars depending on what your theme is like. To use these widgets simply drag and drop from the left to the right area.
Some people though like to manually edit their template theme. Your theme will have a sidebar.php that holds the information that is shown in that spot. This can manually be edited with code to show up the way you want on each page on the site. While this is more difficult, some argue that it will help you load your Wordpress site a bit faster since it is not gathering up all these widgets to include each time the site is visited.
If you do change your theme, your sidebar might change on you quickly. This is because every theme is coded a bit differently. If you do make a change, you might have to adjust your sidebar accordingly to make it look good on your new theme. For the most part everything works but sometimes adjustments will have to be made.
Whatever you use depends on your personal skills. If you can't code and change templates manually, the widgets are for you. If you have the ability to change the theme on your own, not using them can be a better option for speed.
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