![]() "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
2 Comments
Tawayne Malone Jr.
2/1/2018 10:29:36 am
I think your title "...But I'm not blogger" is great because we are all thinking that in our heads but honestly there is not a proper way to blog. Everyone has their own style of writing which will attract different readers. I really enjoyed reading your blog post due to the fact that you provide us readers with a simple and interesting structure of sentences to follow. I agree with you that there will always be a digital divide between the older and younger generations. Technology continues to advance every single day giving the older generation no time to catch up to the young generation which adapts to the new technology easily. Before we know it, we will be the older generation that can't keep up with the younger folks. I look forward to seeing your next blog posts even though you're not a blogger hahah.
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2/4/2018 11:36:30 pm
I definitely agree with your view that the digital divide may never end. I think that there will always people who adapt to new technologies and those who will reject new changes in favor of comfortability, therefore always enforcing a 'divide'. I always think about how people complain that technology is making us anti-social in public spaces such as when using cellphones while taking public transport, but before the cellphone, people would just read the daily paper as a way of not having to interact with those around them. So really as you explained, there seems to be more of an issue with our society rather than new technology. (I also really love the title of your blog by the way, very relatable!)
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