The absurd and unfounded myth of the digital native

For some time now I’ve been talking about the damage being caused to our societies by the mistaken belief that young people, by definition, are in some way “digital natives”, able to perform magic on computers and smartphones, or somehow more predisposed to use technology efficiently. Today I came across chapter seven of “It’s Complicated”, by danah boyd, which reflects my own views on the matter of young people and technology.

The book, based on a decade of interviews by the author of more than 150 adolescents, has become an Amazon.com best seller, even though boyd has put the book online in pdf format, free of charge. Her thesis, which I have long espoused, is that just because young people spend a lot of time on the internet or using social networks does not mean that they have any real idea of how best to use these tools. As a result, young people’s future possibilities are being seriously limited.

This phenomenon is manifesting itself in Spain, as in most countries, with some interesting results: for some years, use of the popular social network site Tuenti, a closed, non-indexable site (kind of “what happens on Tuenti stays on Tuenti”) has led to some particular use patterns: spending hours glued to a screen using a social network like Tuenti does not imply mastery of any type of technology; in fact it is common to see young…