Technology reduces the value of old people, warns MIT computer guru

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

Technology reduces the value of old people, warns MIT computer guru

Philip Greenspun, an MIT software engineer and hi-tech guru, argues in
a recent blog post that "technology reduces the value of old people."
It's not that old people don't do technology. On the contrary, many of
them are heavy users of computers and cell phones. It's that the young
won't bother tapping the knowledge of their elders because they can
get so much more, so much faster from Wikipedia and Google. . . .

According to Greenspun, "An old person will know more than a young
person, but can any person, young or old, know as much as Google and
Wikipedia? Why would a young person ask an elder the answer to a fact
question that can be solved authoritatively in 10 seconds with a Web
search?"

read the complete post on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/weblan
____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

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