Digital Natives

A good column at the NZ Computer Society by Brenda Leeuwenberg on being a digital native:

We’re a privileged generation, those of us in the 30-50 or so age range.

While we were alert and ready to learn, we got relatively easy access to personal computers, the internet emerged and invaded our lives, and a whole new suite of skills and job opportunities appeared almost overnight.

We have been riding that wave, developing our skills and exploring the opportunities of technology with open and flexible minds. We have been alert to the need to know a bit about how things work, to accept that things are sometimes not quite perfect, and that sites/phones/computers do crash.

We are sufficiently in the zone to remember rotary dial phones, records and record-players, typewriters and hand-writing essays for school. We remember schools, universities and workplaces without computers. Accordingly we appreciate so much the opportunities afforded to us by the technological advances of the last 25 years or so.

This is so true. I learnt to type on a typewriter. I recall working in Parliament when parties did not have websites (in fact I created National’s first website). I remember when parliamentary researchers subscribed to dozens of overseas journals and magazines to eep on top of their portfolios. And I remember how fax machines were the main joke distribution mechanism.

But I’d like to challenge the concept of the ‘digital natives’ – those children of our generation who have grown up with computers, internet, iPhones, and all the technological advances we have seen happen. We hear that they are shaping the future (and no doubt they are), we hear that they are so lucky they just ‘get’ technology. But actually I don’t think they do.

I think they ‘have’ technology but they don’t necessarily ‘get’ it. They don’t know how it works, they don’t appreciate where it’s come from, they don’t get why it’s amazing – for them it’s just there and theirs to use.

And actually that is a problem, because these ‘digital natives’ don’t follow instructions, read manuals or use navigational tools. They favour the technology for short bursts of activity, instant gratification and no-understanding-required interfaces. They have the attention span of a flea and the sense of entitlement and inherent ‘rightness’ that comes with being a teenager.

They can create entire worlds or slaughter armies on the Playstation, but frequently can’t file or find documents on the hard-drive. They can draw elaborate pictures on the screen or with a mouse, but they can’t type. They get frustrated with the iPhone because it makes them spell words properly (true story!) so they look naff in the face of their badly spelled txt spk peers.

Again I agree that those of us who grew up without the Internet and associated technologies, appreciate it the more for that.