A Digital Generation: Digital Visitors & Residents
The digital world is relatively new, so not everyone is fully skilled with the ability to navigate technology without really being taught like younger generations are. I am definitely one of the people who did grow up with technology around me and I have always been very comfortable with it. I pretty much taught myself how to navigate the internet and different types of technology on my own, giving me the skills to walk my mom and grandma through how to google something or open their camera from their iphones. I would consider myself a digital native, mostly because of how familiar I am with technology and the amount of experience I have with it, yet I would not consider myself an expert; there are still so many things I don’t know about (yet).
The content from this week distinguishes digital visitors, or digital immigrants, from digital residents, or digital natives. In David White’s video, he discusses this as well as how this shows up in terms of values, attitudes, and behaviors. The younger generation, who typically have native digital skills, have different intent than older generations who tend to have a different use and understanding of technology. In The Internet and Youth Culture, Mesch noted that “acting in a media-rich environment and a bedroom culture, the Net-generation or digital natives express different values, attitudes, and behaviors than previous generations.” Digital residents spend more time using the internet to socialize, be creative, meet new people, and to learn. David White describes older generations learning how to navigate the internet and technology as them just using it as a tool, and it is similar to learning a second language.
I personally think that digital residents/natives have a skillset of digital literacy that is essential for the future. With that being said, it is important younger generations are taught some digital literacy skills so they can strengthen their understanding of how to navigate and interact on the internet. Things like how to write a proper email, how to maintain professionalism on the internet, and how to find reliable sources of information are all things that are critical as we get older. I think that many assume that younger generations spend too much time on the internet or are looking at screens all the time, which I honestly can’t disagree with. I think that while us younger people have a digital skillset advantage over older generations, we always probably lack the kind of real-world situations that older generations have likely lived through.