Whose Fault is “File Not Found”?
Monica Chin’s article “File Not Found” in The Verge, dated September 22, 2021, describes a phenomenon experienced by some university professors who realize that their students, raised on Google type search engines, don't understand how to organize information using virtual files and folders.
Having been raised from an early age to have an interest in organizing and classifying things (I still remember trying to impress my aunt, a Catholic nun, with how organized my “holy card” collection was) I have experienced this phenomenon described by Chin many times over. Members of my own family, for example, despite their being experienced users of computers and a cloud of other electronic devices, to this day still resist organizing files hierarchically. As a result they have computer desktops I kindly refer to as “rats’ nests.”
On the other hand, I remember once upon a time when I was working on a data center consolidation project as a consultant and a decision was made to use Google Drive to facilitate document sharing across multiple geographic locations. The client was invested in a traditional Microsoft network architecture. Both IT and executive staff were accustomed to using hierarchically structured network based file folders for storing and sharing files and documents. In that instance, moving to the Google architecture with its de-emphasis on folders was strenuously resisted.
I don't think the problems here can be easily understood. True, many young folks today may have been raised using Google search functions for both web and email access. The culprit though is not Google but a failure to teach kids, when it comes to online and database access, there is always more than one way to “skin a cat.”
Kids learn early on how to organize and classify things, starting with basic concepts like warm or cold, friendly or scary, on or off, up or down, etc. The ability to make such distinctions and use them to make sense of interacting with the real world is part of growing up.
In my opinion, the most effective approach to overcoming over-reliance on search is to more explicitly incorporate concepts related to organizing information in both grade school and high school. At one time, for example, children were taught how to use standard library tools such as card catalogs and the Dewey Decimal system. Today's online information access is seemingly more streamlined given the speed of online tools and search systems.
There may still be advantages to understanding a wider range of tools. More serious in my mind than over reliance on search is a lack of understanding of basic database management concepts. This becomes obvious whenever people use spreadsheets to manage increasingly large and complex collections of information and find inevitably that more powerful-- and complex-- tools are required.
Bottom line: we all need to understand that over reliance on “search” will end up biting us if we don't take more responsibility for organizing our own information so we — and others — can find information later on..
Copyright © 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald
