Thanksgiving

For my Thanksgiving, I went home for the whole weekend, and did not get back until Monday. This was great because I got to see a whole bunch of my friends as well as my family. On Wednesday I left the school at about 3:30 but I did not get home until about 7 because of all of the traffic. On Thursday, I had to come all the way back up to St. Petersburg from Sarasota county because we were going to my Mom's friends house for Thanksgiving. When we got there, we had to wait for all of the food to finish and for everyone else to arrive, but it was worth it. There was a whole bunch of choices both for the actual meal and then for dessert, a couple of hours after the meal. We eventually went home at around 8, but I was too tired to do anything except go to sleep. For the rest of the weekend, I would hangout with my friends. This was really fun because this was the first time I really got to see a lot of them since I had left for college.

Registering for classes

This week was the first week that I was allowed to register for classes. When I saw my advisor, the classes that she suggested for me were pretty vague. She only told me what areas to take my classes in. There was only one class that she actually suggested and it looked pretty gay so I decided that when it came time to pick the classes that there would be an easy way to look at classes. When Monday came, I looked at the site and did not have a clue about where to start looking for classes. It took me a thirty minutes to find out where I can look at the different types of classes. But then I did not what classes to take. I finally found a little tab at the end that said something about undergraduate requirements, and that helped me to find all of the classes that I needed. I finished registering yesterday. I was not sure about all of the classes that I took but they were the ones left at the times I wanted so I hope that they are not bad.

End of the Semester

There are only a couple more weeks left in this semester. Towards the end I hope that my grades don't fall because right now I do not want to do any work at all. We still got finals to get through and some of my classes still have exams before the finals. However, always around this time of the year I have started to slack off. It gets harder and harder to motivate myself to finsih an assignment and I also start to not care about what grades I get on my assignments. Hopefully my grades won't slip too much before the finals and I do good enough to pass my classes.

IDK

It seems that everything that we are supposed to get done has to be done all at the same time, and is due one right after the other. There is an awful lot of writing that comes with each of my classes. I have to write two essays this weekend and I also have to make sure that they are both MLA otherwise I will lose a lot of points. I also have to start studying for an exam that is coming up. Plus finals are also coming for up for each class. I sure wish that it was a little more spread out. I hate whining about stuff, especially stupid stuff like this but I also had to write a blog as well and this was the thing that I could write the most on.

Google Generation

Aodhan Smith
10/31/08
Enc 1101-42
Google Generation
The Google generation, as defined by an English study, is the generation that has no memory of life before the Internet (Information Behavior). While there is no clear cut line yet, the study that was conducted studied children born after 1993 who are in their school years now (Information Behavior). The characteristics of this generation are that they lack attention span and the ability to effectively use academic databases over search engines. Also, it is believed that generation Google is better with technology and uses it more than any age group or generation before them. The study showed that this is not always the case for this generation and that most of these characteristics are either false or apply to more than just the Google generation.
The first thing that the study disproved was that generation Google is better with technology (Ars Technica). The study showed that while generation Google was more technology based, they did not use technology better, they just used simpler programs (Ars Technica). Rather than use a database to get information with credentials to back it up, generation Google uses simpler search engines, like Google. This has also lead to an increase of plagiarism because rather than summarize the article and look for who wrote it, the article is just copied and pasted and not cited (Ars Technica).
Another behavioral trait that is said to be common of the Google generation is that they are more impatient than all previous generations (Ars Technica). The study also disproved this belief as well. While the Google generation does have a shorter temperament, this characteristic is also common in older people who use technology (Ars Technica). This is a result of a change in society. Since we are used to receiving the answers to our questions immediately from search engines, when it is not found in the first couple of pages of search results the searcher starts to get annoyed that it is taking so long. So the characteristic of having a short patience when it comes to getting search result is a characteristic of our culture as a whole rather than just one generation.
The Google generation also is said to lack in analytical skills and the ability to use effective keyword searches to find information on the internet. This is evident in how the students who were studied searched the internet. Many of them, rather than type in a key word or phrase, just used sentences as their search parameters (Information Behavior). The group also read the whole article and pictures rather than skim it for important points and relevance. Since they lack in analytical skills, the use of a search engine is much easier than using a database. This also leads to the lack of citing because many sources pulled up on Google are not primary sources, they are just articles that are talking about sources with no physical way to confirm the evidence provided. Databases at least provide where the information can be found.
The majority of the characteristics of the Google generation are false. While this generation is lazier, it is more of a culture wide change as opposed to being just those who grew up with no memory of life before the Internet. Generation Google does lack in analytical skills which is leading to the predominant use of search engines, like Google, and also to a lack of citations. Also, this generation is no less impatient than any other generation who is using the Internet right now. The study showed that older people who use the Internet as much as this generation does right now can be just as impatient when they do not find what they want right away. This also is more of a culture-wide change as opposed to a trait specific to one generation. Generation Google is not necessarily lazier than any other generation, they have just adapted to the technology presented to them and taken the easiest route possible. Rather than go the library to find a book, they just use Google to find it, and then cut and paste what they want rather than summarize it.

Blog

I voted early last weekend. When I got the ballot, I was shocked to find out about all of the different things that I have to vote for. In addition to having the presidential ballot, there was a bunch of local officials to vote for, and a bunch of ammendments as well. I had no idea about the local officials. I did not know what they had done or who I should vote for. Also, many of the ammendments were very long and hard to understand without having to read a couple of times. I think that one thing that should be changed is that they should have a simplified version of the ballot. What if someone who is very impatient gets there ballot, they might answer yes or no and not even agree with what they voted for. Also, I felt like leaving the ballot blank was not a choice because I had heard that if there are too many blanks than your ballot can be invalidated, and while I was not sure about that, I was not going to take that risk.

UE

When I was getting ready for college, a lot of people told me that I was going to have to write more, but this was more than what I expected. I have to write papers in classes that should not have anything to do with writing. In some classes, I have more to write than in composition. In my history class, we had two essay questions for a test, and they were due in 50 minutes. The worst class so far has been my University Experience class. I do not like it, and I am not sure if anyone in our class actually likes it as well. I am sort of mad at my orientation leader for telling us all to take it. She said it was a good way to get to know the college and that it was fun. She must have had a different teacher or something because this class is not fun. On top of being at 7:30 in the morning, and it being almost 2 hours long, the projects that are supposed to help us get to know the campus better are more of obstacles in the way of me getting a good grade. Our teacher also wants us to write 3 4-6 page papers on our personal experiences, career goals, and some other dumb topic. These topics are not like research papers, where you can fill in space with statistics. I have to actually write all of that. I do not like writing about a topic that you have to stretch more than it will go. I know that next year, if I meet someone taking it, I am going to tell them they should probably get out.