Reflective Searching

Searching the internet or "googling" is not a new or foreign concept to me. I've been around computers or at least had access to a computer and the internet since I was in the fourth grade. I even explicitly remember having to do a project in 4th grade that required us to conduct research on the internet. We went to the computer lab everyday for probably a week and researched the branches of government. Easier back then than now, of course, our teacher gave us an index card with the all the sites that we were allowed to use. With that being said, I was also taught how to use the Dewey Decimal system in the library, as well as, how to look up information in an encyclopedia. So I guess you could say I am on the fence of belonging to Generation Y and the Google generation as it is referred to in the article,  Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future.   While this article focuses on generation by age, I think that if you can use the internet to do research or participate in social media whether you are digitally literate or not you are a part of the Google Generation whether you are 16 or 60.  

If you consider yourself a part of the Google Generation, what is your typical search pattern?
After reading through the resources provided in this module, I began to think about myself and the way I conduct research. I like to think that I can find what I need fairly easily on the internet. I mostly rely on Google, as it is my favorite search engine.  My typical search pattern is Horizontal Information Seeking. As stated in the article, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, "Horizontal Information Seeking is a form of skimming activity, where people view just one or two pages from an academic site and then 'bounce' out..." I find this to be an easy and efficient way to find the information you need. This skimming activity allows you to use text features such as titles, subtitles, and summaries to help you quickly decide if a particular link will be useful for your research or not without having to completely read it.  How do you see yourself as a searcher? Are you also a Horizontal Information Seeker? If I had to guess, I would say that most young adults and teens are horizontal Information Seekers. It's just how we use the internet.
Regular use of the internet for me whether it be on my Iphone, Ipad, or laptop is fairly similar to that of a typical teen. I tend to get frustrated or impatient when things do not appear immediately. Also, more often than not I find myself "plugged in" in some way, if its not checking social media it's looking up a movie time or a good restaurant in the area, or researching the answer to some random question. This relates directly back to the article How Teens Do Research in the Digital World, which states that "today's digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans." Being constantly "plugged in" definitely shortens your attention span but it also puts yourself into a filter bubble. The sites know exactly what most of your searches consist of and it tries to "help you out" by showing you things most consistent with what you search.  Thinking of this concept of the filter bubble is quite scary and it limits you to information searches that may be out of your "normal." If you notice yourself stuck in a filter bubble on Facebook, Google, or any other website there are ways to get out or "pop" that bubble. You can delete the cookies on your browser, erase your web history, tell Facebook to keep your data private, etc. You can even go incognito, most browsers have a private browsing mode which turns of the history tracking. I think I may need to use a few of these tips myself after reflecting on my internet usage.