Teens and Libraries in Today's Digital World

Rainie, L. (2014). Teens and libraries in today's digital world. Retrieved from http://http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/09/millennials-and-libraries/

Reading Lee Rainie's presentation on teens and libraries made me feel old! As a young(ish) educator, I view myself as tech savvy, up to date on the latest technologies, and able to keep up, but I certainly don't see much of myself in these teens. I can certainly say that I have seen teenagers and young children exhibit these symptoms. They have unprecedented access to the internet. It's at home, on their phones, on their televisions, and never out of their reach. They are unable to function without a connection. I'll be honest, I've found myself in that same boat, when I was out of cell service or during a power outage. Why is it, during a power outage, that we suddenly have a million things to do online?
Teens, even with a wealth of information at their fingertips, are creating a type of ying and yang paradox in the classroom.
Yes, digital and internet searches have greatly impacted their classroom work, but it's also created a distracted generation.
Yes, the internet offers endless amounts of information, but teens become frustrated when they don't get their answer right away in the search results.
Yes, the internet creates self-sufficient researchers, but it's overwhelming.

With this generation of multitaskers, we are uncertain of the outcome. Will it be good? They can cycle through personal and work related issues quickly, find information at lightning speed, and work collectively. Will it be bad? They are easily distracted, they don't retain information, they operate in short social messages, and lack deep thinking capabilities and face to face interactions.

40 slide presentation