While browsing Business Week for another class, I came across an article that just happens to be written by Don Tapscott - the author of Growing Up Digital. In this article Tapscott discusses an interview he had with a young man by the name of Joe O'Shea. Joe is currently 22 years old and is studying at Oxford. Tapscott says that he and O'Shea talked and shared similar views about the "Net Generation." O'Shea's most shocking statement was that he "doesn't read books." He says that he no longer has time to read books cover to cover with all of his school and social work. Instead, he uses Google Books to find information that is relevant to him. All he has to do is type in a subject line and Google Books does the rest for him. These search results include what books he should look at - down to the page and paragraph. So instead of having to read an entire book to find a small piece of relevant information, Joe spends ten minutes on the internet to find what he is looking for. I believe this is relevant to our class because it presents the other side of Bauerlein's argument. Although kids aren't truly reading as much these days, they are still obtaining the same information online. And besides still finding all the information they need, they can do it much faster than anyone could ten years ago. This shows that while Bauerlein does make a valid point about kids and reading, he leaves a BIG part of the story out.
This article can be viewed here
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