How the internet has changed the way we access information
This
website is designed to raise awareness and illustrate the implications of rapid
internet growth and it’s increased usage on young people’s reliance on the
internet as a way of gaining information. While the foundations of the internet can
be traced back as far as 1969, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the internet
really started to take off, and now continues to grow year on year. It is therefore highly likely for those born after the 90's to
never have known a world without the internet, leading to the classification
of today’s children and teenagers as the 'Google Generation'. Many of the young people amongst this generation have either little
or no recollection of a life before broadband, mobile technologies and Google. The internet has, and still is transforming many aspects
of our lives, not only the ways in which we obtain knowledge and information,
but also the ways in which we socialise, shop, entertain ourselves, manage our
health, and interact with public services.
The info graphic below begins to illustrate the proportion of internet growth over the past decade, and alongside such increase, how young people’s current research behaviours are effected by today's significant internet usage and online existence.
Click on the info graphic for a larger version
The info graphic below begins to illustrate the proportion of internet growth over the past decade, and alongside such increase, how young people’s current research behaviours are effected by today's significant internet usage and online existence.
Click on the info graphic for a larger version
Sources
If you want to look in more detail at the information provided in this image then you can access the original data sources below:
Whilst this info graphic enables us to see the increase in internet usage and the effects this has had on young people’s research behaviours today in a statistical representation, it is of course important to look at the reasoning for this; the affordances of the internet, how and why this is effecting today's research behaviours and both the benefits and drawbacks of this situation.
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Before such discussion ,it will be useful for us to look a little deeper and expand upon the existing picture we have painted in relation to growth of internet usage, reliance and changes to research behaviours. Watch the short video below to get an understanding about some of the surprising statistics related to this topic.
How internet growth has effected research behaviours
The Internet affords us immediate access to a considerable amount of information on almost any imaginable topic. It a powerful channel for sharing and accessing
information which has resulted in the web becoming a widely used tool for
conducting research amongst students, in particular through their use of search engines to retrieve information.
It is seen in many situations, that students seeking information will readily sacrifice content for convenience. For many young people today, convenience when searching for information comprises of; being readily accessible, containing the needed information in an easy to use format and minimal time taken to access and use the information source. In the current digital environment, the use of internet search engines ticks all of these boxes and so are the most obvious and popular choice for the majority of students. It is in this context that most students now avoid making physical trips to the library, with such a convenient alternative, many see library trips as unnecessary and effortful as a result of limited access hours, distance to the library, and the time that it takes to carry out library research.
It is seen in many situations, that students seeking information will readily sacrifice content for convenience. For many young people today, convenience when searching for information comprises of; being readily accessible, containing the needed information in an easy to use format and minimal time taken to access and use the information source. In the current digital environment, the use of internet search engines ticks all of these boxes and so are the most obvious and popular choice for the majority of students. It is in this context that most students now avoid making physical trips to the library, with such a convenient alternative, many see library trips as unnecessary and effortful as a result of limited access hours, distance to the library, and the time that it takes to carry out library research.
Reliance and Assumptions of Google
“In a fast food, fast data environment, the web transforms into an information drive-through. It encourages a ‘type in-downlaod-cut-paste-sumbmit educational culture.” |
With this becoming assumed behavior for those born into the 'Google Generation', there is large consensus from parents, educators and employers ,whether this generation, when they reach university and the workplace, will turn out to be profoundly different from older generations in their attitudes, expectations, behavior and even in the way they “think” as it argued that their brains are being 'rewired' (Carr, 2010). It is in this situation that many worry that it will prove challenging to make students think, rather than assume, and read, rather than copy and paste.
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Being brought up in a ‘Google Generation’ shows evidence that young people are automatically trusting of results they find through Google and deem such results as reliable sources. Search engines are able to retrieve a list of websites in just a few seconds ranked according to their relevance/popularity to the particular subject of search . It is often here, that young people feel the need to look no further than the first page or results as they assume these will be most 'relevant' to their query. However, results sorted by relevance and popularity, provide no guarantee of reliability which is a common unawareness amongst young people today. The disadvantage of the information on the Internet is that its reliability can be extremely uncertain. Judging reliability is crucial in order to take advantage of one of the strengths of the internet, which is the diversity of the information made available (Harris, 2007). This requires thought, analysis and selection of what information is useful, which can be time-consuming. With convenience as a key factor for young people, this is a process very rarely carried out.
It has also been commonly noted that the internet has contributed significantly to a rise in plagiarism because of the ease to 'copy and paste' , with a large proportion of young having little understanding or awareness of plagiarism rules.
It has also been commonly noted that the internet has contributed significantly to a rise in plagiarism because of the ease to 'copy and paste' , with a large proportion of young having little understanding or awareness of plagiarism rules.
Further Reading
If your interested in looking at the research behaviours of the 'Google Generation' in more detail, I would suggest reading the following:
Brabazon, T. (2007) The University of Google: Education in the (Post) Information Age, Aldershot: Ashgate.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lxzfK0D1Iv8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Connaway, L.S. , Dickey, T.J., and Radford, M.L. (2011) "If It Is Too Inconvenient, I'm Not Going After It: Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-seeking Behaviors", Library and Information Science Research, 33, pp.179-190.
http://www.oclc.org/resources/research/publications/library/2011/connaway-lisr.pdf
Brabazon, T. (2007) The University of Google: Education in the (Post) Information Age, Aldershot: Ashgate.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lxzfK0D1Iv8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Connaway, L.S. , Dickey, T.J., and Radford, M.L. (2011) "If It Is Too Inconvenient, I'm Not Going After It: Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-seeking Behaviors", Library and Information Science Research, 33, pp.179-190.
http://www.oclc.org/resources/research/publications/library/2011/connaway-lisr.pdf