Submission + - Dumbing down and smartening up via the Web
FangVT writes: "In his column on Infoworld Ephraim Schwartz describes a trend towards "dumbing down" information on the web to appeal to the short attention span of "digital natives" (DNs). He cites Gartner's Media Blog, which claims that Digital Natives "graze somewhat randomly for information, scanning Web pages for photos and video, and reading the text only if the images capture their attention."
The article is short and near the end he raises two main concerns:
The article is short and near the end he raises two main concerns:
So is this just another example of the age old arguments that kids today just don't know how to pay attention, or is this something more substantial?"One, unless we get DNs to behave more like [non-natives], future generations will have a harder time developing the study skills they need to master and understand their environment in order to become the kind of professionals — doctors, architects, engineers — that we need to keep a complex society running.
My second fear is political. Unless our future generations learn to analyze content and understand issues by reading deeply, they will be far more susceptible to being manipulated — and not likely for noble goals.