definitely NOT the greatest generation

[veronica_rich]

This falls in the category of 'Oh dear Dog, how stupid ARE you?'

There are two things in here that stand out as annoying and offensive to me:

1. When I was a kid and hadn't heard of something, I had to go look it up in a book or ask a teacher or my parents (or grandparents, whatever). We didn't have the Internet; hell, I was lucky I had an Atari 2600 and Pitfall for it. The point is, there was no ten-second point-and-click research. BUT REGARDLESS, THERE ARE THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO LOOK UP OR ASK ABOUT IF YOU'RE OLDER THAN, OH, NINE. "Was the Titanic real?" Are YOU for real? I knew about the Titanic literally decades before James Cameron told us about it.

I don't think I'm being culturally privileged; you people literally have the easiest research tool in the history of ever. The only way you could find things easier is if Servo the Robot could read your mind and download information directly into your brain as soon as you wonder something. If you have the privilege of access to Twitter, you probably have the privilege of Internet access, too. So don't give me that.

2. No, don't go "wikipedia" something. Use a real source. Take a few minutes to verify it by crosschecking. Wikipedia is good for killing time or bullshit, or finding external links to real sources. Period.

Comments

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

I remember when I looked stuff up in my parents huge encyclopedia series. If I ever had to write a report, that and books from the library was what I used. Even when the Internet was introduce, I till used books because Mom and Dad were rather paranoid about it.

I don't mind Wikipedia, but I agree that cross checking references is a good practice to have.

[day221b.livejournal.com]

I remember the Titanic debacle from a month or so back and was appalled. This is no different. It's just sad. I won't even comment on the dumb, and it's just plain lazy. It's also very telling of our culture and where it's heading.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

I remember the Titanic Twitter thing too. If you were being really generous, you could attribute that to films not being seen as "real". But yes, I knew about the Titanic when I was a kid. It was just one of those things you learnt about by reading a book or newspaper, watching TV or asking your parents.

[kronette.livejournal.com]

I don't...I can't... WTF? How young are the people on twitter to not know who the Beastie Boys are? Yeah, I knew one of their names was Adam, but hell, a quick google search told me who he was. I won't even get into the horror of seeing the Titanic twittersode.

Before Teh Interwebs, I would call my grandmother if I had a question about cooking, my grandpa about math, my dad about cars, etc etc. Even today if I need to know something, I'll either call mom if I'm being extremely lazy or I'll google it (and NOT USE WIKIPEDIA DEAR LORD WHY). My niece did a report on Walt Disney and she was using wikipedia (she's 11), and I refused to allow her to cite those pages. I found the real information on Disney's site, plus his IMDB (Which I know isn't a whole lot better, but using that, I was able to find "legit" resources). I don't think teachers should allow Wikipedia as a resource. Ban it, make the kids look a bit harder than the first 3 returns on google, and LEARN SOME SH**.

[(Anonymous)]

There are some very good individual wikis however. The one for Pet Diabetes has more info than you will find in any vet's office and it is accurate. I have looked up cities on wikipedia and thought the info was reliable, obviously if the city's government cares about how it's represented online it will have accurate info.

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, when seeking a fact, my daughter will call me and ask, while her friends look up the answer on their smartphones.

I am usually faster than Symon's iphone4.

Heh.

But then, my Dwarf used the iphone his company gave him to show a youtube video to his apprentice about how to calculate a complex mitre joint cut angle. I would not have been able to help with that at all. (So far, it's the only thing he's used the iphone for other than as a phone.)

[captsparrow4evr.livejournal.com]

I remember as a kid that the teacher would often assign us a specific number of resources to use (for ex. one source per page for a 5 page report or 3 sources for a 500 word essay.) She/he would also often say "Don't use the encyclopedia" or "Use primary sources." I see it as a larger problem that started years ago. When I was in college, I found I loved doing research but it shocked me that many of my peers found it annoying. College and high school students now can buy papers from a huge industry and there seem to be no consequences. To me, it's not a big surprise considering how many people sit back and accept everything Faux News feeds them without question.