Students of Today.

I had to add one more Wesch video up here, they are so very good. This one is about the lives of today's students. It's hard for me to really know, but I assume that college students throughout time have always procrastinated, multi-tasked and BS-ed their way through class. I can't know, but I have to assume this is so, as it is true not only of myself, but absolutely everyone I know.

While we can assume that human nature does not change, much as surrounding geography manipulates the course of a river, technology funnels our human nature into different avenues and changes the way in which we react to situations. It's hard to explain what I mean. Students have always been busy, but the omni-present nature of technology in our lives has created a static halo around all of us, almost like an essence of "busy-ness" that is reflected in how we go through daily life.

People say that the youth of today are impatient. I wholeheartedly agree. I have no patience for things that I find unnecessary. I spend my life multi-tasking, getting the maximum amount of information through the minimum amount of effort. My relationship with the internet has taught me that this is acceptable, and I consider this stream-lining of my existence to be highly positive.

In class, when professors drone on and on rehashing concepts I understand, I feel no compulsion to pay attention to them. When they assign readings that I can understand by briefly skimming the conclusion, I will not read them. And my test grades and current GPA verify that this way of approaching education not only works, it is highly successful. Many of my friends only attend classes for the midterms and finals, of them I consider myself a very good student.

Do I feel badly?

The answer is no. Anything I want to know I can (and do) learn myself. If I want to know something the answer is only a few clicks away. If I have a question about a lecture I'll email the professor. Students of today have been changed by the technology and media they interact with, and have interacted with since they were born. If academic institutions want to maintain their control over students' attention spans then they are going to have to evolve with the times.