I flipped open my laptop in a crowded college library several weeks ago to begin writing this column and typed two sentences before a pop-up window showed I had a new e-mail. Believing I could use a break before writing a third sentence, I logged into my account to investigate. “Join your school’s only Intertribal Indian Dance Troupe!” the e-mail read.
Before I could consider how I qualified for such an e-mail, my AOL Instant Messenger sidebar came alive to inform me that a friend seated a few tables away had activated her computer. “Hey,” she wrote in pink letters in a blue textbox. “Hey, hey,” I responded.
As I waited for her response, I examined the link to her myspace.com profile which featured new photographs of my friend in swimwear. This, of course, reminded me of the new online Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. After perusing a few of the “1,200 photos of 90 famous models” at si.com, I felt I might as well investigate the Nuggets’ updated box scores, which were only a click away. So impressive were the team’s statistics that I decided to catch game highlights on nba.com. Then I enjoyed some music videos on MTV.com, downloaded a few songs from iTunes, read some jokes on collegehumor.com, played an online sudoku puzzle, examined a satellite image of my home using map.google.com, and perused front-page stories on denverpost.com. Two weeks later, I am prepared to write a third sentence:
Like television, which was once touted as a great educational tool, the Internet’s entertainment value greatly overshadows its educational purposes. Despite all the talk about the Internet’s educational possibilities, few students acknowledge the reality that the Internet is dramatically undermining our already-limited ability to focus. If television shortened our attention span, the Internet is splintering it. As one of my peers confided, “I need to duct-tape my laptop shut and have my roommate hide it if I hope to get any work done!”
Although both television and the Internet promised to educate the masses, the tendency of students like me to gravitate to mind-numbing programming and websites has eviscerated the Web’s effectiveness as a learning tool. Just as my generation tunes into MTV, the Cartoon Network and Comedy Central rather than the nightly news, the History Channel and PBS, we likewise devote our hours to gaming and social networking sites rather than reading historic documents on the Library of Congress website. We change the television channel the moment a dull commentator begins to speak, and surf the Web whenever typing an essay becomes a drag.
This isn’t to say schools aren’t working hard to harness the Internet’s educational possibilities. Lecture notes and readings for many classes are available online. Students can view some lectures online or listen to them through a podcast. We can participate in online discussions about difficult class topics by blogging on course websites. We submit papers via e-mail rather than in person. Even foreign-language oral exams can be submitted online using WebSpeak, which allows graders to better analyze a student’s performance.
Despite these advancements, students use the Internet mostly to circumvent rather than supplement the learning process. The temptation to surf the Web on the very laptop on which I’m supposed to be taking lecture notes often overwhelms me. I’m far more inclined to effortlessly Google facts for my term papers rather than immerse myself in library books. I exchange study guides with classmates via e-mail rather than create them myself. In place of the formerly arduous process of searching for answers, I instantly zero in on what I need – and thereby lose the wisdom that comes from learning something beyond the confines of a search.
The speed of a school’s Internet connection has become more important than the number of books in its library.
While schools understandably tout the Internet’s educational uses, they should keep in mind how often we students abuse this technology by playing mindless games, searching for photos of scantily clad women and watching music videos. So before you remind me that all the readings, lectures and notes are available online, beware how easily I am distracted. Perhaps you should just tell me to read a book.
In conclusion … but I just received another e-mail! I’d better investigate.
Michael Koenigs, a graduate of Regis Jesuit High School, is a freshman at Harvard. Applications for the new Colorado Voices panel are being accepted through Feb. 20.
