Lee Raine is the Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project * and he recently spoke at the Public Library Association conference in Boston in March 2006 about teenagers and their online life. He focused on the "Millenials", the group born between 1982-2000 . He mapped out "eight realities that shape young people’s worlds that will affect their information and research needs after they finish their educations."
I've included a couple of excerpts from his presentation but I recommend that anyone working in reference services or helping to plan library services read his speech and view the excellent charts and graphs.
Raine stated that "for your purposes, it’s important to note that Millennials’ devotion to the internet has greatly shaped the way they approach research process. In many cases they start projects by going online and browsing around. When they have questions, they will often ping their social network for advice and guidance.
They approach research as a self-directed process. Those who want to serve them would probably do well to think of themselves as “info support” in the same way all our offices have “tech support”: on call and ready to deal with problems, but not in my face showing me every possible function and setting on my computer." [My Emphasis]
Raine also pointed out that this cohort are often unaware of or indifferent to the consequences of their use of technology. The following table shows how this belief plays out in action:
- " 51% download music files
- 31% download video
- 19% take material and remix and share it
- 75% agree: “Music downloading and file-sharing is so easy to do, it’s unrealistic to expect people not to do it “
- 66% agree: “As long as people are still buying music and movies, it’s okay if they download or share some things for free.“
- 55% say they do not care much wither what they download is copyrighted or not
They are often uncaring about their own privacy and they enjoy “soft surveillance” of others."
*What is Pew Internet and Life?
Pew Internet and Life "creates and funds original, academic-quality research that explores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source for timely information on the Internet's growth and societal impact, through research that is scrupulously impartial."library library millenials reference
