Digitally Literate: Another Look at the Millennials

Since Millennials have been immersed in a technology-driven society from birth, they possess the ability to intuitively use technology and navigate the internet (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).  In fact, “20 percent began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8.  Virtually all [Millennial] students were using computers by the time they were 16 to 18 years of age” (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p. 2.2).  Due to this immersion into technology from such a young age, many Millennials prefer graphics over text and can transition from the virtual world to the real world almost instantaneously.  This reliance on graphical images is such a predominant characteristic that many Millenials refuse to read large amounts of text “whether it is in the form of a reading assignment or lengthy instructions”  (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p, 2.7). In fact, the average Millennial college learner has spent less than 5,000 hours reading but well over twice that amount playing video games and over 20,000 hours watching television  (Woempner, 2007).  This reliance on images and the virtual world leads some Millennials to be less literate when it comes to text-based information than previous generations of learners. 

The Millennial generation is also more likely to use the internet for research as opposed to a brick and mortar library.  In fact, many of these learners have never used a card catalog, encyclopedia, or dictionary that does not reside in a virtual environment  (Rosen, 2010).  This brings up the issue of being able to discern the credibility of information found on the internet. With the explosion of web resources such as Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers, the Millennials must be taught the proper research and evaluation techniques for an educational environment.  Next week, I will discuss the impact this has on education.

--CJ Bracken

Instructional Designer, JSRCC

Oblinger, D. G., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the net generation. In D. G. Oblinger, & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the net generation (pp. 2.1-2.20). Educause.

Rosen, L. (2010). Welcome to the igeneration. The Education Digest, 75 (8), 8-12.

Woempner, C. (2007). Teaching the next generation. Denver: Mid-continent for Education and Learning.