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I had an informal discussion with some students today, over lunch. I was surprised by a remark made by one of them: „The disadvantage of the library is that you actually have to be there to read”. Well, yeah, that’s the main characteristic of a library.
But on the serious side, it made me think that their generation is moving their habits for finding knowledge online. But, at least for now, the Internet hasn’t proved its scientific value that printed material could bring.
Second, they have a certain fear toward social relations as they are perceived by their parents, for example. Communicating over the Internet gives you the ability to escape the traditional behavior implied by „real-life” conversations and meetings, for examples.
In real life, you can’t open multiple windows or place someone on the „ignore” list with just two clicks, you have to pass through a series of social procedures accepted by the majority of people.
My students have sometimes a different way of showing how familiar and addictive is the minimalist set of rules used in the online communication: after saying „good bye” to each other, they add „see you later on YM!”.
And I have to admit, sometimes I wish I were on „invisible” mode in real life.
I wish I were on „invisible” mode some times too…
Same here. It’s a lot more difficult to ignore people in real life, no matter how much you’d wish to.
As for the library, another downside is that you have to pay to get your permit. I haven’t gotten mine yet – take a wild guess what the reason may be… Besides, they always lend books on very short terms. I’d like to see one of the librarians try to read *and* understand a 300-pages book in two days.
You pay for everything in this world, be it in money, time or soul. You also pay for the Internet access, but you don’t complain about it, do you? You pay for the bus ticket to go to school, for the beer in Jeg and for the photocopies you do because you missed the last class (a hangover or a 300-page book to read till late at night?).
Remember, the library is not compulsory, reading is not helpful since we are the Copy/Paste nation, university is just a transit.
To what?
I guess you realize that, when I say „you”, I don’t really mean you…
Well, some things are worth paying for, others are not; we all have our personal chart, so to speak, where we order stuff according to its importance. For instance, why pay for the bus ticket when you can ride for free? [I’ve hardly seen any controllers in the past month, and I went by bus a lot].
As for the copy / paste bit, I, for one, take pride that I never did that, nor I intend to do it in. I love reading; it’s just the short terms that I can’t really cope with. [Thankfully, I have a friend who turned his own place into some sort of a library and I get all the books I need from him :D].
and this is why you should never have lunch with your students…