Beloit College Mindset List: The internet is older than college freshmen

He advises professors to teach how to supplement internet searches with library research in scholarly journals, and to remind freshmen to dig beyond the first page or two of Google search results.

Sara Ballesteros, an 18-year-old freshman from South Beloit, said she’s confident she knows how to do legitimate internet research, by relying more on websites that end in “.edu” or “.gov” than in “.com” or “.org.”

She also opined that adults worry too much about kids’ internet habits. She referred to item No. 7 on the Mindset List: “As they’ve grown up on websites and cellphones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.”

“For older people who think we use the internet way too much for bad things, it really depends on the person, on their beliefs and ideals,” she said. “Technology can be used in good ways. But adults don’t always understand that.”