Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Boon and Bane

My sister and I were wondering what’s responsible for the difference in the academic performance of her children to our academic performance when we were young. It seems that we performed way better back then, modesty aside. It was puzzling considering that they have everything they need within their reach through the internet.
As we were discussing, we noticed in the study room that her children who were “doing their assignments” over the internet were chatting, surfing the net or blogging at the same time. During our time, distractions were limited to the television (with a few channels at that) or to playing outside (which was restricted to an hour or two) or to videogames. Now, the tool that aids students to “get things done faster” serves as a distraction at the same time. It’s not as if parents can restrict their children from going online as they have the convenient excuse of “researching over the internet”. It appears as though the time saved because of the accessibility of the internet for assignments is used for other activities. No more tiring trips to the library, no more painstaking jotting down of notes. But at what expense?

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