Berry Picking was quite the read. I guess I've never truly analyzed how even I search the web. It can be a black hole indeed, and does make it very difficult for predicting behaviors. When I was in undergrad, the library was still the prime place to go for research. Nowadays, I would bet there is a large group of teens who seldom, if ever, step foot in a real library and not virtually. But why would they? With so much information at your fingertips on the web, it makes a hard case to promote the old way of searching through books. Web searching is fast and efficient, if you stay focused. A big downfall though is validity of the research found. It's important the users research their sources, which is a step quite unnecessary in the old-fashioned way. Unlike what most people think, it's not always true just because the internet says so. As fruitful as berry picking can be, one must be cautious in the information they choose to use.
How Children Search the Internet
Sometimes it's so hard to put ourselves in others' shoes and I find this to be the case when it comes to children. What seems so obvious to us, is a complete challenge or even miss on the part of a child. I wasn't shocked but rather dumbfounded that these findings didn't seem more obvious to me. Except for the vocabulary and spelling. I can tell you from my own experience with nieces and nephews that I'm amazed how many mistakes they make in texts, emails, and the such. It's as if all proper skills are left behind when using the casual world of digital communication. I find this as a gap amongst the younger generation of professionals, and quite honestly, also with some older executives.
I do think the one that surpassed me the most was the lack of screen use when typing. I don't even look at my hands, but then again, I had "typewriting" as a high school course….on an electric typewriter, note even on a computer! It's unreal. Although, I do think some things come more natural to children due to their exposure. They are growing up with this stuff, whereas my generation had to learn it along the way.
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