Where do you go for answers? My husband can't watch a movie or a TV show without Google open to answer his insatiable curiosity about the most trivial things. Drives me crazy but comes in super handy for bar trivia or small talk!
If you are approaching or past the age of 50, what did you do before Google? Over half of the population today does not remember a life without Google. They were born into the era of instant information.
What does that mean then for how we approach learning--whether formally or informally? YouTube is a repository of free learning--from Neurobiology presented by a Stanford professor to open courses from MIT to coding to Crash Course. Information delivered in bite-sized easy-to-consume modes. Then there are the thousands of podcasts to listen to while driving, exercising, and running errands. So much free content on the web. And, of course, now we have all things AI.
How do we as a human race adjust to a world in which the information is at our fingertips? Is consumption of it enough to constitute learning? How do we begin to use it? Apply it? Think critically about it. Validate it? How do we help the youngest and most impressionable of minds wade through the ocean of information and develop discernment? And, how do we make sure we don't lose the connection with humans and replace it with a screen?
At a restaurant recently I watched a young family sit down and the young boy immediately pulled out his screen and began his video viewing and gaming. I reflected back to when my own kids were that age and the differences between then and now. We would talk with our kids, work through the kids' coloring sheet and games, play tic-tac-toe or the dot game, and discuss strategy.
The benefits of our advancements are innumerable and I'm sure none of us want to return to an age without electricity and running water! But we also need to be mindful of the tradeoffs of the instant information age. BG did have its benefits. Let's just be sure we maintain that healthy balance, nurture discernment and critical thinking, and ensure our connections are both digital and human!
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