The Impatience of the Google Generation 366
profBill writes "As a fifty-something professor who teaches introductory computer science, I am very aware that the twenty-somethings in my class are much more at ease with computers than any other generation. However, does that mean they are more adept at using those computers? Apparently not, according to the researchers at University College London. Their research indicates that while more adept at conducting searches, younger users also show 'impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs'. Moreover, these traits 'are now becoming the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors'. The panel makes two conclusions: That libraries (and I wonder what a library will become in the future, anyway) will have to adapt, and that the information processing skills of todays young people are lacking. Why are those skills lacking and, if they are, what can be done about it?"
Theyre kids of the new generation - deal with it. (Score:5, Interesting)
As a 21 year old... (Score:2, Interesting)
I feel like I'm more capable of absorbing large amounts of information from diverse sources than the last generation. I grew up with Google, though. Wikipedia has been around since I was about 15. Then there's IRC, Usenet, all of the forums filled with would-be experts and complete logs of conversations about more or less anything you can imagine...
The dewey decimal system is, by comparison, total bullshit. The whole notion of a physical library needs a bit of an overhaul. Integration with some sort of full-text search service (google books with a "reserve this book" feature, and drive-thru pickups at the library) could be cool, privacy implications aside. But still: that requires leaving my house. Let's face it, delivering plain text over the internet is way more efficient.
Systematic literature review (Score:4, Interesting)
An good exercise is a systematic literature review [wikipedia.org]. You have to make sure that you don't just find some information about the topic you are interested in, but you find all of the available information, then you must critically assess each piece of literature and synthesise them properly. Each stage of the process must be justified and repeatable (so no Googling)
I'm in the middle of one of these and its really shown up my impatience to get answers. In my opinion something like this should be a part of the school curriculum, or at least a part of undergradute courses.
Sounds sensible... (Score:3, Interesting)
These days I find myself being very annoyed if I can't find information that I need. Growing up as the web evolved sort of helps me see how I've changed myself. My work (R&D) depends on finding information quickly. At home I have very little free time (small kids), and I'm very annoyed whenever I fail to find the information I need. Don't even get me started on what happens when I have no internet connection at home...
Oddly, being netless is not much of a problem for me when I go to the summer cottage for example, I still seem to have the ability to detach properly. I suspect people 5-10 years younger than me may not do so well under similar circumstances.
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Apples & Oranges (Score:5, Interesting)
But seriously, I see more older people typing in something for search result and then giving up when they don't get what they want: 1) They haven't internalized the power of Internet search engines as we have, 2) Most of them seem to have lousy keyword-picking skills.
Of course, I'm probably biased, since I haven't been around too many old people (especially not those who blazed the trail for computer science), but I still find your comment unsupported by evidence.
Re:Facebook Generation, Google Generation,... (Score:3, Interesting)
Generations are just another way to express prejudice.
Personally, I get immense satisfaction out of being prejudiced against prejudiced people.
Re:you still have the other kind of people (Score:3, Interesting)
It discussed if that was actually a problem in itself i.e. as long as you have an answer, does it matter that you don't know how to get it? I'd say yes because understanding helps breed new insights/knowledge more than a collection of facts but perhaps that's just because of the era and way I grew up.
Re:Research Methods (Score:3, Interesting)
When someone can easily write a 4000 word essay on a subject they previously had almost no knowledge of in one night and still get an A, there is a big problem.
I'm not sure that statement is entirely correct. If the person can write a 4000 word essay on a subject they previously had almost no knowledge of and still fail to properly comprehend, then there is a big problem. On the other hand, if access to information has reached a level where a person can get a good grasp of a subject quickly and put that to good use, this has to be a good thing, surely?
It seems the way essays are written and, more importantly, the way they are marked are the key things here. Instead of just checking that the student has included all the relevant keywords, assesment should account for good research and a demonstrably well-rounded understanding of the subject. This is not a new problem - it has been the case for a long time, since well before the advent of the internet. I'm sure we all have anecdotal evidence of people who studied the bare minimum and still got good grades because they included the right keywords and could bluff an understanding - all the internet has done is made this problem more visible, since there are now tools to highlight lazy research and plagiarism.
Re:Theyre kids of the new generation - deal with i (Score:5, Interesting)
Aside from my liberal arts classes in college, I never have used those skills in the 15 years I've been in the workplace.
The ability to find stuff very quickly on search engines is something that I need on a day-to-day basis and has had the president of my company come into my office with requests for me to find something for him.
Virtually any new business problem can be researched, overviewed, found in a highly rated book that describes the topic, one-click on Amazon with over night shipping, and read through the chapter that details how to do what you need to do.
The ability to determine the accuracy of that information, digest that research, mold it to the problem at hand, and write it effectively into proposals, designs, and code is what is useful in my job.
Unfortunately, colleges are just spitting out kids who have never really learned how to work together on a project, reuse code, or share information out of the fear that they will be called a plagiarist by some automated tool. At best their experience is limited to a "software engineering" class or internship.
The skill of being able to find things quickly is paramount in getting them up to speed in that area, because once you let them know they don't have to code EVERYTHING from scratch, they are more than happy to search code libraries for what they need.
I look forward to the day when we have coded better search engines that can search on some of the meta-properties of text rather than just the words or patterns.
Re:Facebook Generation, Google Generation,... (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know what "this generation" is going to do. I do think that we've become too used to instant gratification. That is due to google and all electronic consumer goods (television, ipods, and computer games) that provide is with constant stimulation so that we don't have to learn how to anticipate, or to have the measure of time for an event be more than 30 minutes (like "an afternoon with a book"). I do think that technology has made this generation different than the last, and I think that society will have to figure out how to deal with this all-to-accessible human-experience-saturater called the modern computing experience.
Google is nice... but... (Score:1, Interesting)
What's so cool about Library of Congress is once you figure out which Letter a subject has, you can go there and just start yanking tons of books off the shelves, and educate yourself on loads of stuff right there. Plus, you don't have to sit in front of a computer to do it. You can just take the books and go wherever... check them out and go sit cross legged in the middle of the quad, go sit in a cafeteria reading without having to worry about trying to find a wifi signal with a laptop or worrying someone is going to steal your laptop. I have many fond memories of sitting in dorm computer labs pulling all nighters with literally 30 book or so stacked up all around me that I was yanking info out of to complete papers. It's awesome. Search engines can give you some info, but most websites with really in depth info take a lot of digging or reading a multitude of pages to get the info. With a book you can just glance at the index in the back and find your info, usually a lot quicker than it will take you to find the right keyword in google, yahoo, or any other search engine. Actually, after you do some book research, you could go back online and look up more keywords that you fond in the physical book that actually will put you in the right direction. Another problem with online stuff is that you'll find a lot of hits for amazon books for sale, ebay junk, etc. instead of just good scholarly info sometimes. Google Scholar is good as an add on to a library search, but it's no real replacement.
Re:Systematic literature review (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't want to argue with you, but this excerpt made me think about the great Donald E. Knuth [stanford.edu], whose story is well known: in the 60's, he devised the lofty project of writing a set of books about algorithms, that would be the definitive and comprehensive source of knwoledge about this topic. It is the famous and acclaimed The Art of Computer Programming.
All is fine, except that the level of detail and perfection that Dr. Knuth set himself to pursue led him to search for every piece of information about algorithms that could included in his books, and also to invent an idealized assembler (twice, MIX then MMIX) to get a feel "how it really works concretely", to program his own typesetting system, the great TeX (twice, first in Pascal then in C) --and to invent by the side his own programming methodology, literate programming (which has never caught on)-- and to revise accordingly his first three volumes once or twice each.
Now, forty years later, the wealth of knowledge about algorithms has grown exponentially, to the point that no one man could know all about it, and he is nowhere near the completion of his initial goal. Moreover, the workload he has currently assigned himself to complete unfortunately seems to require a longer time than his expected remaining lifetime (he was born in january 1938). And there are not many things more disheartening than seeing someone dying too early to achieve his lifetime Graal...
Sorry for being glum and offtopic,
Re:Systematic literature review (Score:3, Interesting)
That is because the rise of infotainment targeted to the consumer class has displaced news targeted to the middle class, so "documentaries" remain as the only mass market vehicle left with which to disseminate news. It used to be the case that 10 minutes of 20 minute news program could be dedicated to something factual and potentially politically relevant (e.g. the Vietnam War, civil rights protests), now that 10 minute slot is taken up with celebrity gossip.
What you call processing still occurs in academia and in some parts of the "blogosphere".
Re:Facebook Generation, Google Generation,... (Score:3, Interesting)
You can make a post into a hippie? What are YOU on, hippie?
-mcgrew
PS: something just happened that happens daily that refutes Professor Bill's entire thesis. Now, rememeber I'm a 55 year old geezer. So what do I seee almost daily at slashdot, where all of the admins are young enough to be my kids?
Slow Down Cowboy! Slashdot requires you to wait between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at posting a comment. It's been 16 seconds since you last successfully posted a comment
You kids are just too damned slow!
The reported research doesn't match the article. (Score:3, Interesting)
If you read the actual article, the researchers came to the conclusion that the whole idea that the "google generation" is more impatient with results and expects no delay was not actually backed up with evidence (p. 17 of the pdf).
Re:Theyre kids of the new generation - deal with i (Score:3, Interesting)