Information Literacy and Crap Detection

Photo from gptechnicalsolutions.com

While I was reading the crap detection article, I was struck by an observation made in a information literacy class I recently attended. During the class (which mainly consisted of freshmen), the librarian was asking students to complete research for a specific search term using three specific library databases (that were all very nicely gathered for them by the librarian and available on the class libguide). During one part of the class, the librarian asked that students find a newspaper article in a major publication such as the New York Times using a specific database. One of the students was 'caught' using Google instead. When the librarian asked him why he was using Google, he answered that Google was a 'short-cut'. But was it really?

Library databases allow students to find reliable and pre-vetted information so that students do not need to use the 'crap detection' technique when researching for a paper or project. Yet, students seem determined to use the 'easy' search engine instead of one that is going to give them better results. Why is this? How do we as librarians combat this?

Information literacy is so important at every level of education. Students need to learn how to successfully search for topics using search engines and databases. They also need to learn how to determine if the information is valid or not both in educational and everyday situations.

Social Grooming, Friends Structure, and Privacy

Photo from citytowninfo.com

I watched the video twice because it is just chocked full of information. I picked up on a variety of keywords and ideas that I would like to flesh out here on my blog. Let's start first with social grooming. Social grooming, via Wikipedia (I know, it's bad!!), is the act of animals grooming one another in order to build relationships. Social grooming in the context of the web, means saying nice things about one another to build or showcase relationships. If you think of social networking sites, like Facebook, you find people saying hello, saying nice things to each other and about each other -- social grooming. Though I am not in the population discussed in the video, I am able to see social grooming on my own Facebook pages as friends say hello and reinstate their friendship or husbands and wives posting words or images of love for their spouse.

I found the 'friends structure' portion of the video very interesting. When I first started my Facebook page, I hated friend requests from high school acquaintances. But as time went on and I opened up my social network on Facebook, many individuals from high school become part of my friends structure. They became part of my audience, they are the people I write to and for. Having a friend's structure that concentrates on individuals that are similar in some way (students, tuba enthusiasts) creates an audience of people with common interests or themes, gives us a new community to be a part of and socialize with.

The portion of the video on the definition of privacy for young people was fascinating. I especially found the use of pronouns an interesting tactic that students use to promote privacy in very public venues. I never even considered that the born digital generation would consider the idea of privacy in a very different way from other generations. The idea of being so open so that people think there is nothing you keep private, but it's really just a shield of openness to deflect from the really important things that teens want to keep private.

Just a really interesting video. Did you pick up on the same keywords and themes that I did? Did you feel the presenter did an adequate job explaining the use of social media and young adults to an audience of administrators and faculty? Were you concerned when she began discussing the dismal skills of current high school and middle school students?