Today's youth are sponges: soaking up the world around them that it itself is saturated in innovative technologies, is hypnotized by television, and is caught up by the World Wide Web. Most argue that it is obvious to see how the "Net-Generation" is benefiting from their fast paced lives brought about by the fast paced technologies that run them. Don Tapscott claims in his article "The Net Generation and the School", that a "communications revolution is shaping a generation" and he is very correct. But, how well is this generation being shaped? The Internet and communication in general is no longer about necessity, because for young people from elementary school to college it's become a leisure activity, school work must-have, and entertainment center.

One of the first arguments made about the Net-Generation is that through growing up with the Internet they are becoming better critical thinkers and more digitally literate. However, the critical thinking skills of young people may be growing in one arena, but they are failing in another. In addition, as this generation learns how to "navigate" through information on the web and weave together images, text, and sound with ease, they might also lose the ability to figure things out for themselves. "Because of the availability of visual media, their text literacy may be less well developed than previous cohorts," explains Diana and James Oblinger in their book Educating the Net Generation. The Internet gives a student everything and provides almost every tool necessary to learn so the student does not have to do very much mind work. Critical thinking implies effort on the student's part, but if everything is given to them then they no longer have to think critically to find the answers they are looking for. Today's youth are forced to make critical decisions because they are bombarded with false information and "they are increasingly exposed to the informal education of popular opinion, of advertising, of merchandising, and of the entertainment industry" (Barber, 285). As for digital literacy, which is important since the world is increasingly becoming dependant on digital technology, the Oblingers state that the Net-Generation is "comfortable using technology[but] their understanding of the technology or source quality may be shallow the Web does not meet all their information needs." As young people in a digital age become critical thinkers, who can multi-process vast amounts of information and do several

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Our next generation: Are things getting better or worse??
We want to hear your view. Write now!