Sahara Locke
Published: November 22, 2006
Now more than ever, the speed at which information is obtained and absorbed is reaching its peak. Cell phones, iPods, mp3 players, podcasts, blogs, Web sites and newsgroups have made it possible to stay informed without having to stay glued to a newspaper.
In a world where the faster equals the more convenient, many young people find it easier to obtain information through means other than newspapers and primetime news. Internet sources, newsgroups, and podcasts – which can be downloaded into iPods, mp3 players and cell phones – are satisfying the need to “get it and go.”
Computer networking has been around for more than 30 years and is changing the ways people get their news.
According to <b><a href=”https://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/index.jsp”>Editor & Publisher</a></b>, an online journal that covers the newspaper industry, “The latest generation of young people is more attuned to current events than some would believe; the reason being is that the Internet is providing more and more young people with ways to assimilate current events and information faster and faster.”
Statistics show that 88 percent of Internet users are people ages 18 to 29 years old. Another shocking figure according to Pew Internet and American Life Project Surveys is that 57 percent of online teens age 12 to 17 actually create content for the Internet in sharing and creating Web pages, journals, and blogs.
Who’s running for president? What’s happening overseas? How has the stock market been doing? How many revolutions does the Hubble Telescope make around the earth in a year?
These are questions that – with the help of the Internet – a growing number of young people are beginning to answer with increasing frequency.
In the same article printed in Editor and Publisher.com, Jack Dvorak, a teacher of student journalism at Indiana University, wrote that he was not surprised that youth are better users of news media than might have been suspected.
No longer misinformed or under informed, today’s youth are proving to be some of the most effective in obtaining and translating what’s happening in the current world. The information gap is being bridged by today’s youngest, brightest, and most informed.