This website features a news article is from a well known British newspaper. I found this a highly interesting article as it looks at the idea of the digital natives being ‘ahead of the game’ when it comes to employment in the 21st century. The writer of the article looks at Lee Rainie’s works about the impact of the internet on everyday life. The writer goes on to describe Rainie’s ideas of “today's 21-year-olds being 'digital natives': their formative years have spanned the period during which the internet and mobile phones became central to daily life. In comparison, their employers are 'digital immigrants'”.
The article also explains the rate in which digital technology has escalated over two decades. It also implies that it’s not only the age of the ‘native’ that is used to using this new technology but it is also their need to want to learn and try new things. It clearly explains the differences in ‘natives’ to ‘immigrants’.
It’s a very interesting article to read and would appear quite empowering to the digital natives as it implies that they have the new digital skills which have become “central to daily life”. Once again it was released in 2006 which does limit the reliability to 2009, but as it was only 3 years ago, some ideas mentioned may still be relevant to today. I’m 21 now and even though this article was written 3 years ago, I can still relate to what is being discussed. The article finishes with various ideas as to what is happening and what will happen in the future such as jobs having to be changed to support the new digital phenomenon. Even though the article is quite short and the mention of theorists is brief, it is still an informative article which allows you to know the basics of what it is to be a ‘native’ and an ‘immigrant’. This made me think of a question. Is it possible for an ‘immigrant’ to change to some form of ‘native’ as new technologies are created and begin to appear? Hmm just something to think about.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
So, if immigrants become fearful enough of the digital world they barely feel comfortable in -will they employ young people just to cover that aspect? Will this result in 'two work cultures'?
ReplyDeleteDo you think that powerful immigrants will alter the way they deal with info to fit with natives? Or do you think that natives need to learn the old ways too, so that they can work with the currently powerful immigrants?
Incidentally, do you remember what Prensky earned his living as, before he became the "Digital Immigration Guru"?
Shame you couldn't do all the required posts this week. Check out what you have to do in the final week before the blog deadline, and marshall your forces accordingly.
ReplyDelete