Internet technology develops at a dizzying speed. Insight into new and emerging Web behavior is crucial in order to make sense of the latest developments and contribute to the development of the Web of the future. What are the habits and skills of the so digital natives, the Millennials, the Google generation?

The assumption is that this generation is qualitatively different from what went before.

Back in 2001 when he coined the term “digital natives”, Marc Prensky wrote that ‘today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors’ (See the 6 page article in pdf format). In another article he backs up this claim by referring to research in the fields of neurobiology and social psychology (also available as a pdf (9 pages)).

Back then, most people were baffled by the possibilities and technologies of the information age. While struggling to keep pace, they were impressed and humbled by the way young people thrived online and seemed to stay on top of it all, effortlessly.

A fresh study shows that this is far from the case. The research subject is the “Google generation”, defined as those born after 1993, a cohort of young people with little or no recollection of life before the web.

The study is commissioned by the British Library and JISC conducted by the CIBER center at the University College of London. It reveals how children now in school or pre-school are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.

Poor web search skills

The speed and ease with which these kids handle information technology proves to be deceiving.

These young people have unsophisticated mental maps of what the Internet is. They often fail to appreciate that it is a collection of networked resources from different providers. As a result, the search engine becomes the primary brand that they associate with the Internet.

The information literacy of young people, has not improved with the widening access to technology: in fact, their apparent facility with computers disguises some worrying problems. Internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority.

The researchers have compared studies from the 1980s and earlier (Generation X), with those published around the early 1990s (Generation Y) and more recently, post-1993 (the Google generation).

They found that young people in what they call the Google generation generally have have a poor understanding of their information needs. Consequently they find it difficult to develop effective search strategies and they exhibit a strong preference for natural language search rather than analyzing which key words might be more effective.

Understanding search results is also problematic: It is difficult to assess the relevance of the materials presented and they often print off pages with no more than a perfunctory glance at them.

Social networks and information gathering

The CIBER study also looks at the role of social networks in the information gathering habits of the Google generation. Some progressive librarians have started building a presence in MySpace and Facebook in order to be present where the teens are and build relationships with them.

The study finds that it is too early for solid evidence to see whether this kind of initiative will bear fruit. There is an important difference between “being where our users are” and “being useful to our users where they are”. The study argues that younger users may resent the library invading what they regards as their space.

There is also evidence that the interest in actively participating in social networks is hyped. Most college students say they are not interested in self-publishing creative work, viewing other’s personal collections or participating in online discussions.

The report states that:

Clearly it is very early days, but these survey findings do not provide much confidence that social software, yet, has much to contribute to the rebuilding of relationships with users in an increasingly dis-intermediated environment.

(Download a 35 page pdf summary of the study)