Yesterday on twitter, @papg posted this tweet;

If Wikipedia is so “unreliable” as most teachers say, why don’t institutions encourage correcting the appropriate subject matter?

I replied to this with:

@papg institutions don’t want it to be that easy to find information; because typing into wiki does not involve hours of research

So yes i agree with you. While the internet may improve decision making skills and complex reasoning, there are many negative aspects of using the internet. The information on the internet is not always reliable and of course younger adults are more critical of the content on the net (i guess this would depend on education level). But being critical of dodgy information on the net is a learned skill that older/less experienced users could easily overcome with more exposure.

But perhaps research has become too easy for younger adults. I know, as i am a student, that the internet spoonfeeds all the content to you; you no longer need to have an opinion because you can just get one off the internet.

In my opinion, the internet is discouraging students and younger users from integrating information, processing it and forming their own informed opinion.

Take this as an example: at first it is a pain to write a bibiliography. In time we learn to read articles by flicking back to the references and interpreting everthing that is said in the context of its provenance - who said it, from which lab, from what general line of work, at what time in history, etc. To me this is the skill we teach students when we insist on references.

Gen Y though, seem to have developed the same skill for interpreting internet material. Indeed, I suspect older/less experienced users are more likely to be taken in by nonsense on the net. What do you think?