Not too long ago I remember the term Digital Native come up in a conversation. The words kinda stuck with me for a while and I began thinking about it on several occasions. So, of course I googled it to get a better overall understanding. According to Wikipedia, the term digital native was coined by Marc Prensky in his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants published in 2001. As I suspected the term was referring to a generation of people who grew up exposed to digital devices and electronics at an early age. This was opposed to people who where “Digital Immigrants” or people that where born before the “Digital Age” and they are still assimilating to digital technology.
While I am finding that there are many discussions concerning the term Digital Native. I think there is something really interesting about the “learning curve” factor that separates a “Digital Native” from a “Digital Immigrant”.
As humans, we are constantly adapting to our immediate and surrounding environment to continue a process of evolution. This has been said to be a result of humans need for survival. As much of the world is moving into using digital products, there are a large group of people that our being thrown into this digital world, which is forcing the need for this group of people to adapt to digital products. These rapid changes are happening with house hold appliances, phones, automobiles, and items that we use everyday. I take for example, my own grandmother who has owned nearly 10 different cordless digital telephones in a span of 3 months, because she was unable to learn how to make a phone call. This was not by choice, it was because phones with digital interface were the only ones available.
I would classify myself as a partial “Digital Native”. I remember getting 5 computers at my school when I entered elementary level. They were old Apple desktops. The entire class would huddle around the 5 computers as 5 lucky students got to play Oregon Trail. From that point on, a large part of my youth was spent surrounded by friends getting new video games, buying my first computer, collecting compact disks and now eagerly awaiting the iPad. I feel growing up surrounded by these technologies and friends using them has placed me in a group of “professional users in digital products”. By this I mean, having the ability to adapt to a new digital product or device very quickly. I feel that this is a possible result of technology and digital products being marketed to my generation at an early age. While many groups people did not pick up on this marketing, it is now becoming unavoidable. Digital experiences are replacing old ones. Even how we order pizza.
This brings me to the responsibility of the “Digital Native”. As professional users in digital products natives should have a responsibility teach, design, and produce digital products. These digital products should be able to be used and understood by both “natives” and “immigrants”. By doing so, Digital Natives will soon be able to share similar digital experiences with Digital Immigrants.
