Digital Technology and the Internet: Digital Natives Perspective
Every once in awhile, my boyfriend receives a FaceTime call from his grandfather and we can always presume that he is calling because he cannot figure out his iPad. When this happens, if a simple conversation over the phone fails to resolve Pa’s issues, then my boyfriend is on his way over to do it himself. In this circumstance, I think we all would assume that Pa’s digital illiteracy is due to his age, but I do not believe this is the case. Considering how correlation does not constitute causation, I believe that anyone can have digital literacy, despite their age. This notion of older people not understanding technology is embedded in our new technological age. If older generations were sat down, and encouraged to learn and interact with digital technologies and media, we might learn that they have the same digital capabilities, or even more than those of younger people. Something I want to bring to light is the idea of “Digital Natives”. The counterargument for why young people are so well-versed in technology: but they grew up with technology in their fingertips.
No one can disagree with that — we all know that digital technology has been and will continue to rapidly grow — it is not going anywhere. I believe that idea of “Digital Natives” explains what happens within technological culture quite well. For example, since youth has very much grown up with the vast presence of digital technology, it makes sense that they have spent a lot of time engaging with it. Some adults have better understanding of digital technology than others — what is the explanation for that? Well, I believe it depends on how native, familiar, or comfortable someone is with using technology. Youth who have grown up around technology have spent an awful lot of time around it. Those of older populations who have more digital literacy, I argue, are those who have spent more of their time engaging with technology than their counterparts. I believe these notions become invisible within society when people start attributing their digital illiteracy to their age rather than their lack of experience with technology. In personal experience, I have run into older people who simply refuse to interact with digital technologies. I worked for four years as a manager at a TacoBell restaurant, and when our store was remodeled and the self-ordering kiosks were installed, our management wanted us to encourage all customers to use it, to become acquainted with the idea of you taking your own order. Some people amongst the older populations would not have it and would throw adult tantrums due to their reservations and unfamiliarity with the use of technology. With the start of ordering on the kiosks, us TacoBell employees worked hard to help our customers understand how to place orders, but even when offering to help the older population, we ended up having to take their order on the kiosk ourselves anyway. I believe that some older people use their age as an excuse not to engage with digital technologies, but fail to recognize that it could be a very useful tool for them!
Personally, I do not feel like a digital native, despite having grown up around technology. I feel digitally literate in few, rudimentary areas. Comparative to some older people, they would consider me digitally literate, but comparative to my peers I feel like I am lacking quite a bit. I would consider myself a routine visitor, not so much a resident, and not incredibly native. In academia, digital literacy is moving beyond working a computer and being able to navigate and utilize what the Internet has to offer — it is about perfecting skills, speed, and efficiency.
We are being prepared for a workforce that is not even completely converted to digital technologies. In my current office job, rooms are lines with filing cabinets filled with client files and paperwork — which we must upkeep for the clients who do not engage with digital technologies (ie. email, online accounts, online payments, etc). It makes sense to prepare us for what is inevitably coming, as we see more and more companies convert to paper-less and utilizing more digital interfaces to complete their work, but then we are missing the education of what once was; feeding into our illiteracy overall without digital technology. It brings the question: Are people of younger generations able to complete their job without a computer? Is thinking about that even necessary? Growing up my math teachers always told us that we had to learn the material because we will not always have a calculator in our pocket…
In the article, “Internet and Youth Culture” (Mesch, 2009), I really liked how it described being a visitor or resident as a spectrum. With how vast digital technology and the Internet is, no one person is going to be a resident in all aspects. You will be a resident in some areas, and visitors in most others. I thought that this was important because it highlights how not only does digital literacy depend on the person, but it also depends on what aspects of digital technology and the Internet that they are familiar with. In the article, “Utilization and Leveraging Across Ages and Developmental Stages” (White & LeCornu, 2011) it highlighted how people differ in amounts of access, skill, and meanings associated with digital technology. I feel that this builds off of what I was saying before, in relation to age, how varying access, skill, and meanings affect someone’s perception of and willingness to engage with digital technology. Building off of that, it is important to remember that this is true for all people, across many societal groups, not solely young and old people.