As part of a lively discussion on Kevin Browne’s “Distrust in Academics” in which the Ocelot Scholars and members of HASTAC have been participating, Richie Mayes addresses current student attitudes towards education.  In his analysis, Mayes cites his “tech savvy daughter” whose worldview is that “If there is anything that I want to know, just look it up on the internet.”

A couple days before Mayes wrote about his tech savvy daughter, my partner purchased two chairs that had been custom made by the Jimmie F. Bloink Furniture Company which was located in East Detroit.  Because we wanted to know more about our furniture, I did a Google search and found nothing about the company except that—according to his obituary—Jimmie F. Bloink, Jr. “started working at his family’s furniture store in the early 50’s.”

Although I was surprised that I found nothing about the Jimmie F. Bloink Furniture Company, I do not share Maye’s tech savvy daughter’s or my tech savvy students’ view that everything is available on the Internet.  This is simply not true.  Nor was I surprised when I repeated my search later in day and located a second obituary for Jimmie F. Bloink, Jr. and another reference to Bloink furniture; hits that did not appear when I did my initial search.

When general Internet searching failed me, I searched Google books, census records, Detroit City directories, academic databases, and newspaper archives for additional information.  Although all of my searching still relied on the Internet, I would argue that—as tech savvy students understand the concept—the material was not actually available on the Internet.  Many Google books can only be seen as snippets, the newspaper archives and academic databases are password protected, and a subscription to Ancestry.com was required for easy access to the census records and city directories.  These resources can be accessed using the Internet, but you cannot really just look them up on the Internet.

After hours of research, I have been able to piece together some sketchy information about the Bloink family.  I know that, in 1910, Edward Bloink was a peddler of a bread wagon and in 1920 he worked in a bakery.  However, by 1930, he owned an $8,000 home and was co-owner of Crest Furniture Shops located at 6407 Gratiot Avenue in Detroit.  I also know that, in 1930, his son Jimmie F. Bloink, Sr. worked in an upholstery store, but I still cannot determine if he worked with his father or in some other store.

By 1940, son Jimmie owned a furniture store, but I don’t know the name.  There is evidence in a video concerning remote control trains, traffic signals, and gears for cars that was shot in the 1940s that the name might have been Monarch Upholsterers.  But, at this point, I have no evidence—except for the chairs we purchased—that Jimmie F. Boink Upholstery Shops existed prior to 1958 when Jimmie, Sr. was president of the company and Jimmie, Jr. was Vice-President.  And this is a different company name than appears on our chairs and in the obituary.  Eventually, a trip to the Burton Library and/or some other archives will be required if I want to learn about the company that produced our chairs.

The attitude that “If there is anything that I want to know, just look it up on the internet” is problematic not only because it is not true.  A more serious problem is that relying only on the Internet or any other single research strategy gives a distorted view of the world.

Search engines such as Google track our online activities and then tailor their search results to fit what they think we are looking for.  This can lead to confirmation bias and a distorted view of what is available online.  For example, because the algorithm used by Google to sort search results had been influenced by my online activities, later Google searches produced different results than my first search—even when I used identical search terms.

When I take a class to the library to conduct research, it no longer surprises me that students immediately want to sign out a computer or open their lap tops or do Internet searches on their phones instead of talking to a reference librarian and looking at the books.  The reference librarians and the books are not available on the Internet so the tech savvy students appear to see them as unimportant.  To rely on reference librarians and books might even be considered a hindrance to learning for the tech savvy student who “knows” that if you want to know something that you just need to look it up on the Internet.  It is, after all, far quicker to type your search terms into Google than to talk to a librarian or to search the stacks for books.

If I try to convince tech savvy students that they might sometime in the future encounter a topic such as the Jimmie F. Bloink Furniture Company where the information is not available on the Internet, they would not care because they don’t care about the Jimmie F. Bloink Furniture Company.  And why should they?  But, as a professor, I must work to convince tech savvy students both that the Internet is a valuable research tool and that relying just on the Internet facilitates ignorance.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption:  The chairs my partner purchased. (top) The label on the chairs. (middle)  A screen capture from a video about Remote Control that shows a building with “Jimmy F. Bloink” painted on the side. (bottom)