Information Seeking Behavior in Generations X and Y - Term Paper Example

INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR IN GENERATIONS X AND Y (Student’s name) (Institution’s Name) INTRODUCTION The digital culture prevailing in the modern world has been created after some period. The use of this digital culture differs depending on the generation of the users. The modern society using the digital culture has been classified into two broad categories. This includes the Generation Y and the Generation Z users. The generation Y represents those born during the 1980s and early 1990s. Members of this generation are sometimes called the ‘echo boomers.' On the other hand, the Z generation refers to people born after 1998. They are simply referred to as the post-millennium generation. These two broad classes of people within the modern society have a different approach towards information seeking especially in the wake of the digital era (Hardey, 2011). The Generation Y was born before the numerous inventions within the technological world. However, they had to learn and match with the inventions during the millennium period so as to remain in conformity with the generation Z. On the other hand, people falling within the generation Z domain were born with and in contact with the new and recent technology such as the mobile phones, iPad among other technology gadgets. This proposal paper seeks to determine the differences which exist in regards to persons of information in these two broad categories of people. It intends to build on the fact that the members of these two generations have different exposure periods and knowledge to the information technology. This, therefore, has a great potential of affecting their approach towards information seeking. Their patterns of behavior differ as they try to seek information within the existing digital culture. Approach to information among members of generation Y and generation Z The behavior demonstration in seeking information in members of these two broad generations is highly influenced by several factors. Key among these factors entails their knowledge and exposure to the latest digital culture. During the 1980s, there were barely few technological inventions in the information sector. Access to information was highly limited, and the existing technological infrastructure could not support effective information seeking (Rowlands et al. 2008). Therefore, the generation Y audience was not used to the latest inventions which came during the millennium period. However, most of them adopted the use of this latest technology through learning but in their adult stage. On the other hand, the audience within Generation Z were born and accustomed to the digital culture. For example, the young babies had been exposed to the digital screen, and most of them grew knowing how to dial buttons and use these gadgets. This made the people within generation Z to have easy access and ability to use various components within the digital culture. Studies conducted in the use of the recent technological inventions especially in pursuit of information reveals a great gap existing between people in these two broad generations. The perception, the behavior, and the knowledge highly differ in members of these two generations. Studies also reveal that the approach towards these technological devices greatly differs in a member of these two broad generations. This has also influenced their approach. Many people from Generation Y had to learn and be taught on how to manage and use the technological devices during their pursuit of information. During this process, some of them had a negative perception and even behavior patterns towards integrating these devices as part of their lifestyle. The process was similar to introducing something new to people accustomed to a different way of doing things. On the other hand, members of Generation Z become accustomed to the use of the technological devices from the time of their birth into their adulthood. These devices become part of their daily lifestyle. This explains why most of them are responsive and assertive towards seeking information through the modern technology (Jorgensen, 2003). The fundamental understanding regards the level of interest and behavior patterns of different people in regards to seeking the use of the latest technology for information purposes. Most of the people, such as the users of the social media platforms, have been seen as the millennium generation. These are those who were born in the era of these digital platforms and had become used and accustomed to their use. A greater percentage of those who have continued to employ a positive trend towards the integration of the social media in their communication regard those in Generation Z. This has brought a great gap in the manner in which technology is applied among members of these two generations. The perception, attitude, and behavior towards embracing the information technology differ in the audience of Generation X and those of Generation Y (Bolton et al., 2013). A lot of studies conducted in people belong to these different generations reveal a sharp contrast and difference in the manner in which they apply and show their attachment to the various digital platforms and channels. Many scholars agree on the gap existing in between these two generations and this play a great role in determining the changes in their perception. Research Questions 1. How do information seekers from generation X and Y employ the different search areas such as Wikipedia in their pursuit to gather information from the digital platforms? 2. How often do members or audience falling in either generation Y or Z employ the use of the digital platform so as to seek the particular information of their choice? 3. How do members of Generation Y or Z behave towards the use of the digital platform as a means of gathering and getting information of intended? Methodology Research Design The proposed research design to be used regards the employment of the qualitative data collected from a sample of the population as identified. The study seeks to use the questionnaire instrument administrated to the specific sample chose. The questionnaire intends to address the concerns from the sample constitution of people falling in generation X and Y. some of the things sought by the questionnaire include the need to know the frequency of the use of the digital platforms, the kind of search pages, the knowledge of the members of the selected population on the use of the various digital platforms among many other things. The information received from this research usually forms the basis of qualitative analysis. This entails the use of the information to gauge and analysis the data given the research question sought in the study. This design is one of the most beneficial since the information sought in the proposal is subjective and difficult to quantify. The data collected from the various respondents falling in the various categories then undergo analysis and a conclusion drawn from the research. The design intends to also subject the respondents to the practical creation of a computer technology to test their practical and pragmatic knowledge of the technological aspects. The need to subject the sampled respondents to this approach is to be able to gauge the differences in members of these two generations about their knowledge and also how they practically hand the digital devices. The computer technology intended in the research requires intensive research on various websites. This is ideal to taste the preferred web pages among the various users of digital platforms. Research Sample The study intends to make use of a sample of 60 respondents drawn from both Generation Y, and those from Generation Z. the people preferred and who will be used in the study are college students. In this sample, there are those born post-1998 and those born before this period. The age classification will be done on all the respondents so as to determine the best composition of the different generation. Besides, the college students chosen will equally compose the two different generations with every side constituting 30 respondents. This is essential to have an equal chance of response and then develop a realistic conclusion relating to the information from every sample group. The information generated from the various respondents then undergoes will then undergo and analysis, discussion, and presentation process depending on the nature of information generated. The use of the qualitative information will be predominant due to the nature of the subject matter in the study. Conclusion The era characterized by the introduction of better digital applications and platforms witnessed a drastic change in the patterns of seeking information. The digital culture created provides easy and accessible means of receiving and benefiting from information. For example, there are some web pages which are loaded with beneficial and reliable information. Information seekers are however divided into different generations depending on the age group differences and classification (Guo et al., 2010). The proposal seeks to narrow down to the audience falling in both Generation Y and those generation Z. The specific concern of this study regards the need to understand the patterns of behavior exhibited by the audience from these two generations. This study will exploit the use of the qualitative information generated from a sample population of 60 respondents majorly chosen from a learning institution. The information will further be subjected to analysis and interpretation depending on the responses given. References Bolton, R. N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., ... & Solnet, D. (2013). Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), 245-267. Guo, X., Zhao, Y., Jin, Y., & Zhang, N. (2010). Theorizing a Two-Sided Adoption Model for Mobile Marketing Platforms. In ICIS (p. 128). Hardey, M. (2011). Generation C: content, creation, connections and choice. International Journal of Market Research, 53(6), 749-770. Jorgensen, B. (2003). Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y? Policy implications for defence forces in the modern era. foresight, 5(4), 41-49. Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., ... & Tenopir, C. (2008, July). The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future. In Aslib proceedings (Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 290-310). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Read More