• Ars Technica, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:30 AM

The so-called "Google Generation," or those born after 1993, aren't the Internet "super-sleuths" you would think, according to a British report. The British Library and Joint Information Systems Committee report finds that teens in the UK are only marginally better with technology than adults. They also "tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine," and are far from expert searchers. In fact, this is "a dangerous myth" the report finds, adding that knowing how to use Facebook doesn't mean they know how to mine information using Google.

A literature review, which was part of the study, concludes that there has been no improvement in young people's information skills over the last decade, besides having access to instant answers through search engines. The report cites choosing search terms as a special problem for younger users.

The contention that Web sites like Wikipedia contribute to a greater collective understanding or peer knowledge is another myth, according to the report, which says kids prefer and value teachers, relatives and textbooks more than the Internet. So what is true about the Google generation? They like to cut-and-paste, they prefer visual information to text and they multitask all the time.

Read the whole story at Ars Technica »