A new British study just released called " Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future", concludes that the idea of the "Google Generation" may be a myth - specifically that the assumption that young people who grew up with the internet are the most savvy and web literate is not true. While young people are more comfortable with computers, they don't necessarily possess the knowledge of how to use them effectively and how to analyze information that they discover:
http://www.bl.uk/news/2008/pressrelease20080116.html
In a a different vein, I think the recent student panel also debunked some of the assumptions about young people and technology. While the students on the panel were comfortable with search engines and had grasped the importance of using the library databases, many of them were unfamiliar with some of the other technologies - they didn't known about RSS feeds or micro blogs, they didn't write their own blogs, they didn't use blackberries, and they weren't sure what a social networking site was until we mentioned a few examples by name (myspace, facebook). While these technologies are promoted by technophiles in the media and other circles, they aren't being embraced by all young people as a matter of course.
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