The Information-Seeking Behavior of Youth in the Digital Environment
Library Trends - Vol. 54 Nbr. 2, October 2005
Dresang, Eliza T
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The theory of Radical Change, which is based on the digital age principles of interactivity, connectivity, and access, is suggested as a lens to reexamine existing research on youth information-seeking behavior in the digital environment. After a brief review of research meta-analyses, which often point to deficits in youth information-seeking behavior, questions that emerge from this research are suggested. Meta-analyses of gender and information behavior studies find that some recent research disputes former conclusions. Radical Change is applied to an examination of specific facets of contemporary research in order to demonstrate how new perspectives can be gained. This analysis addresses commonalities between information-seeking behavior related to the handheld book with hypertextual qualities and digital materials, the social nature of information seeking, and emerging issues of access. It is noted that the public library as a setting for research has rarely been used, even though its less structured nature might provide insights that do not surface in schools. A look at directions for youth information-seeking behavior research in the future proposes how brain research might shed further light on behavioral observations. Conclusions note existing research and summarize some new points of view and areas for investigation.
The Information-Seeking Behavior of Youth in the Digital Environment
INTRODUCTION
An up-to-date overview of research conducted during the past decade related to youth information-seeking behavior in a digital environment reveals challenges and opportunities. A theoretical examination of some of the studies provides new perspectives on research findings that have been overlooked and areas that are ripe for study.Discussion of TermsIn this study, "information" refers to ideas or thoughts that individuals contribute, seek, or obtain from informal or formal discussion, investigation, or study. The whole of information behavior is a complex combination of factors. According to Wilson (1997), who is regarded as a founder of the study of information behavior, at least three facets must be considered. The focus will not be on the perceived need for information or on factors that affect the individual's response to this need but rather on the processes or actions, including information uses, involved in responding to the need.The fully emerged digital age with a saturated digital environment did not occur until digital media (media with an embedded microchip) started to touch the lives of the general populace in the last decade of the twentieth century (Dresang, 1999b). In his book BeingDigital, Nicholas Negroponte (1995) of the MIT Media Lab wrote, "Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living" (p. 8). Negroponte and Dresang purport that the impact of the microchip extends beyond direct contact with digital media to influence how one gives, receives, and creates information. The digital environment is ubiquitous; it permeates everyday life.Young people in the early twenty-first century are "growing up digital," a term applied by Don Tapscott (1997) to those who were born after 1977 and who have experienced a life in which computers are commonplace. With the same Internet-generation youth in mind, Holloway and Valentine (2001) coined the word "cyberkids" to describe young people whose lives are inextricably bound up with an Internet-saturated setting. The information-seeking behavior of these cyberkids, growing up digital, has raised numerous questions ...Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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