![]() "Put your phone away." "All you do is look at that phone." "In my day we actually went outside to have fun." If you are under the age of 25 you've probably heard something close to those from your parents at some point in your life. And if you're like a lot of people I know you think your parents just don't get it. They're just too old and they don't get it and they never will. Is that true? Something we've been talking about in my interpersonal media class this week is the digital divide. There's no doubt there is a divide between the older generation and the younger generation when in comes to digital savvy. We read an essay by Marc Prensky titled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. In the essay, which was met by lots of critics, he broke the divide down into two groups. The younger generation, Digital Natives, and the older generation, Digital Immigrants. The Digital Natives grew up with technology and the internet and thus navigating the digital landscape is second nature, they are born with it. On the other hand, Digital Immigrants didn't grow up with the internet and they are rushing to catch up with the times. Prensky made a lot of assumptions about people in different generations which brought about the criticism. But the core of what he was saying was right. The question is will we as a society ever be able to close that divide? It would seem that as technology has advanced further the divide has only grown larger. The more gadgets and social media sites that pop up the more the younger generation jumps on it while the older generation is still struggling to figure out Facebook. Now of course there are plenty of "old people" who are extremely digitally savvy and plenty of kids who can barely use the internet but, generally this isn't the case. Unfortunately, I don't think this divide will ever go away for the simple fact that this divide has always existed. The divide hasn't always been digital, but it's been there. When rock n' roll first started, there was a divide. The older generation thought it was the worst thing ever and it was going to ruin the youth. The same thing happened when rap started to become popular and is still happening. It's a cycle that you can see happen over and over with all kinds of topics. The reason for this is because we have a tendency to stick to what we know and what we learned in the first place. It is hard to change and adopt new habits when you get older. For example, if you've been calling people on the phone to talk to them for 20 years and all of a sudden someone hands you an iPhone and says don't call me just text me, it's hard to make that switch. In 25 years from now when we are the "older generation", I'm sure we'll be the same way. We might even have some sayings of our own like "In my day we actually had to type out our text messages with our fingers." Who knows where technology will take us next? Wherever it is, there will be a group who picks it up right away and runs with it and another who struggles to keep up, that's the nature of the digital divide. That's just my two cents... ...but I'm not a blogger. Marc Prensky Essay www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
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I've written a lot of papers and essays in my day, and the introduction is always the hardest part. You're supposed to introduce everything you're going to talk about but how can you do that when you have no idea what you're going to say. That's the reason I usually save them for last. But that's not really an option in a blog (or is it?). The truth is, I don't know what this blog is going to be, but that kind of intrigues me. It could change from week to week or maybe there will be a clear theme after a few posts. You'll just have to wait and see. Full disclosure though, this blog is for an assignment in my rhetoric and media studies class called interpersonal media. So expect a lot of content centered around social media and other media. There's also a high possibility that at the end of my semester this blog will cease to exist but, never say never. So stay tuned and keep up because this blog will come at you fast...
...but I'm not a blogger. |
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