
The heavy backpack students carry is just a prequel to those generations reliance on Internet resources. As these students bring home their math, science, and history worksheets, they don't bring home these books planning to read them, but instead planning on digging out information when and if needed.
The heavy backpack syndrome isn't necessarily as big of an issue as it was even ten years ago in many places as many schools have cut expenses by only having classroom book sets instead of issuing each student their own textbook. I'm sure the future of the online textbook is not very far away.
But today each of us carries a very large backpack of accessible information. Some days I long for the drudge, challenge, and commonality of the library trip were you'd scour the shelves for information you might need or be interested in, but today it's all at our fingertips.
With all of this information accessible to us, our giant backpack of information it is a blessing and a curse. As a blessing, there is so much information we don't need to know, but more than that no how to find. The curse is that we've subjected ourselves to second and third hand information. If I want to learn about anything, a Google search will point me in the directions of businesses and pay-per-click advertisers who are interested in my business and consumer purchase power, more than by informability.
In the same way heavy backpacks have given kids spine problems, the ever expanded accessibility of information can be crippling to as this backpack of accessible information becomes increasingly filled with information that is hardly beneficial at all.
Related Tags: backpacks, information overload, Internet, google, technology, education, Empire Falls, Richard Russo
3 comments:
sounds like you need a vacation
Never discount that trudge to the library! Even though the internet is gaining more and more reliable sites it is also gaining more and more unreliable information. Anyone can post whatever they want!
There is also something to be said for spending the time researching and digging for the best information instead of the instant gratification of typing your query into Google and taking whatever comes up first (regardless of its reliability). Of course, I'm sure you expect a comment like this from me. But, I appreciate your comments on the subject and agree with you. The internet is great for many things (how did we ever find good flights before?) but I think it is vital that we use it for what it is good for and keep in mind that just because something is posted on a website it is not necessarily fact.
Hmm, very interesting post, and I think it's very true. I shudder when I hear the phrase "lit review." I wonder if I had grown up a generation earlier if I wouldn't feel so adverse to searching through articles and books to find relevant information? Maybe graduate school will teach to me appreciate the hunt that AK describes instead of instant gratification from google type sources - but I'm not holding my breath :)
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