Just in Time for the Past

I read an interesting article in the paper this morning. It was a real, folded-up newspaper left at my doorstep in the dregs of the last snow event. And it was bliss. But I digress. According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the rate of blog readership among 12- to 17-year-olds has fallen from 25 to 14 percent in the last three years. The study found a similar drop among 18- to 29-year-olds. Tech experts, wrote the reporter, do not believe that blogging is going away; rather blogging "has gone the way of the telephone and e-mail--still useful, just not sexy."

Hmm. With my new blog, it seems as though I'm just in time for the past. The only thing I have to say is that I'm glad that my audience, members of TLA boards, are neither young nor particularly interested in sex. Outliers feel free to object.

Seriously, educators born before 1977 have a problem. It is generally acknowledged that the so-called Net Generation, those individuals born in the last quarter of the 20th century, have never known life without the personal computer and the Internet. On the other hand, Baby Boomers like me who have an analogue default mode often manage people whose default mode is all-digital-all-the-time. There are bound to be problems.

So with problems come "probletunities,"| claims TLA friend, seminar leader, and recent Triangle visitor, David Langford. I intend to revisit this topic in the near future. For now, fetch your weekend newspaper, be the mature reader you are, and enjoy it with a good cup of coffee!