Does Generation Y still see digital media as less serious than traditional media?

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For years teachers and video media have blasted the trumpets, crying "foul" against the trusting of digital media.  Over and over again students have heard that what they hear and see online is not worthy of repute, and should not be given credence. 

Now, however, this mental barrier appears to be shifting.  According to Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, Generation Y holds to the digital universe as their primary source of information. 

The Net Generation (as Generation Y is also called) rarely turns to the television for news, information, or even programming.  Tapscott even goes so far as to call TV "ambient media," and likens TV watching to a background operation much like playing music while driving a car. 

This should come as no surprise, however.  The Internet plays into some of the most prominent norms of Generation Y: freedom of choice, customization, collaboration, entertainment, and speed.  Gen Y'ers can multitask constantly as they acquire information from collaborative information sites like Wikipedia, can watch only the programs that interest them on Hulu, and can talk to their friends all at once, all simultaneously, all instantly. 

Some would even argue that the Internet, and the ways it is used to distribute instant, collaborative information, has been a large part of what has formed many of the norms the Net Generation is notorious for. 

But does this make the Internet actually reputable enough for Generation Y to count on it as the serious media that they believe it to be?  Maybe, maybe not.  The flaw in the Internet is also its strength: collaborative, viral information.  As it currently stands, Internet information operates like word-of-mouth.  Just like word-of-mouth, if a person goes to a reputable source, the information can be trusted, but if a person goes to a less reputable source, she is likely to get misinformation and rumors.

If Gen Y'ers know where to go for their information on the Internet, the Internet can be a useful source of information.  If they trust every site they see, however, they are likely to end up being burned.

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For more information:

Postmodernism, Modernism, and the Cultural Cloud of Truth

The Millennial generation question...what makes a millennial?

7 characteristics of postmodernism in Generation Y