Is There a 'google' Generation?

Introduction - introduces the issues to be discussed in this book. It acknowledges that the internet era has transformed the information world in many ways, or at least appeared to have done so. It also provides a timely reminder that new information and communications technologies have been emergent over many generations and patterns of adoption have been studied historically.; The rise of the information society - discusses the nature and evolution of what has often been termed 'the information society'. It traces an historical context that identifies how the emergence of technologies at different times changed the nature of society and, over the past 200 years, placed increased focus on information as a basis of genuine democracy and then as a commodity.; The internet era - focuses on the growth of the internet in the past 10-15 years and it rapid adoption by the general public. Data from various sources are examined to plot the changing information and communication environment and in particular to consider the changes that have occurred in the media-related settings of young people.; Google generation: what is the evidence? - reviews evidence from a wide range of sources around the world to identify whether internet penetration, alongside adoption of other emergent technologies during the same time period, has a distinctive age profile.; Generational differences in learning - focuses attention on more specialised information searching behaviour and considers whether the emergence of the internet has produced a new generation of scholarly searchers who seek out information differently from older generations. This chapter examines published evidence from different parts of the world as well as some original research evidence on how people learn.; The digital scholar - continues the discussion introduced the previous chapter; evidence is examined from primary data analyses to consider the use that is made of electronic information sources by different categories of information searcher.; What next? - pulls together key findings and observations from the earlier analyses in an attempt to map out the future, in order to identify what the information searching environment of the (fairly near) future could look like.