Generation G

I've spent these last two weeks with a younger generation and I have been reminded again of the difference the Internet and technology have made in the way of life of the  current generation compared to ours.

G is for Google. I sometimes teach small businesses how to use IT to enhance their businesses and one of the things I say to them is that there isn't any question you type into google that you won't find an answer to. There's nothing new under the sun. Whatever you are thinking, someone else has thought about it sometime before.

The thing that struck me most is the fact that in our days, we looked up to our parents especially to learn about the big bad world out there. We looked up to people older and more experienced than us to help navigate life as we grew up gradually. That isn't the case with the current generation G.

Generation G believes they know more than their elders because they've searched the Internet and have read all sorts of things therein. Generation G believes my generation is operating under old fashioned thinking when it doesn't confirm to what they've read from their google searches.

The downside to this trend is that the Internet is full of writings by every Tom, Dick and Harry who has access to a computer. This is made particularly clear to me when I read medical stuff. For every medical topic out there, you will find articles and writings that support opposite sides of the same topic. For example, There will be people claiming eggs are the best thing for you and they will quote research and all sorts of statistics to back their claim. You will equally find as many people claiming eggs are the worst thing for you. They also have their stats and research to back them up.

Bottom line, we can find research and articles to support anything we want to support from the Internet. It's up to each person to apply some bit of common sense and seek knowledge from people with experience to enable you find the truth of a situation. The other side to the coin also is that everything in life is relative. What is good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. What is good for the goose at 12 may not be good for it at 24.

No matter how far we advance technologically, we must recognize the place and value of experience. People who have lived where you live can give you a more relevant analysis of a situation and counsel that is more suited to your situation. Information on the Internet is also context and culture specific. One brush can't be used to paint for the entire world. Everyone writes from the perspective of their culture and environment.

It's also a call to our generation and older to step up and be aware of what's going on in cyberspace. We must educate ourselves so that we can counter wrong thinking when we come across it. We can't counter simply based on our past experience. We must be able to say we've seen this or read this and this is why it isn't right or it is. No one is going to accept counsel or instruction from us blindly anymore. Those days are gone.

Here's to Generation G! Long live the World Wide Web.