Who's Who in the Digital Age

I like many people born after 1982 grew up with computers but I know that my brother, born in 1991 can do things with a computer I could never imagine doing before I saw him do them. Such behavior I believe reflects the fact that just because someone is born in the digital age does not mean they are "digital natives" or that people born prior to the 1980s are all "digital immigrants." In fact Dr. John Palfrey and Dr. Urs Gasser, authors of the book Born Digital, seen on the right, have pointed out that if anything far more categories can be used to define people in the digital age, which I believe is a more effective approach than simply using Mr. Marc Prensky's two sided approach. Basically, age may be an important factor in determining if someone is a "digital native" but how technology is used by people or if it is used at all also matters. Obviously full fledged "digital natives" were born digital, like my brother and many of his friends, and who live digitally and spend more time talking and working with one another on-line then off, and being on-line is about the only way you can talk to them even if you live in the same house. However, we must also recognize that many people have been "born digital" but may not live digitally. This group includes both young people who choose not to live digitally or are unable to live digitally. In reality only 1 billion of the world's 6.7 billion people have regular access to the Internet, meaning the vast majority of people cannot even consider living digitally because it does not exist for them. Also many people born prior to the 1980s fall into more than just a broad "digital immigrant" umbrella term. For instance, a colleague of Dr. Palfrey recommended the term "digital settlers" for people who were born before the 1980s but live digitally, and in some ways, I believe, they might live on-line even more than "digital natives" especially if they work in a field that requires extensive use of computer technology and they have children who are "digital natives" and are more involved in their children's lives by living on-line. A "digital immigrant" on the other hand is someone who struggles through the digital world, like my parents, but do not live digitally. Finally though, we have people who do not have anything to do with the digital world either by choice or circumstance and were not born digital. I believe these more comprehensive terms provide a better understanding of how people live in a growing digital world.
I do however worry that as an educator, trying to teach my own students how much privacy they need to have when living digitally will be very hard to, in part because they are drawing the lines more than their parents and lets face it teenagers do not always exercise the best judgment (in fact we know the frontal lobe, which governs judgment develops more during adolescences than at any other time in life-Courtesy of Dr. Elizabeth Sowell of the UCLA Brain Research Team). I think in the end, parents and teachers, regardless of when we were born, will need to find a way to live digitally enough to ensure the safety of the children we raise and educate, but still find a balance so that the kids can still learn from their mistakes and become well functioning adults. I also have to say, I am very worried about how people who do not live digitally will be able to survive in the years to come. We need to find ways to make living digitally relevant to everyone, otherwise some people will inevitably be treated unfairly in a digital world, or are taken advantage of by having their identity stolen on-line.
I also must note that this is my first blog so I am uncertain how to end it. However, I feel I must give thanks to Dr. Palfrey and his colleagues for the research they do on this topic, and I must note that they do not endorse this work. I also would like to leave you with two links one to Dr. Palfrey's blog and the other to the Digital Natives website from the Berkman Center at Harvard. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/28/born-digital/
http://www.digitalnative.org/#home

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/litandmore/4041300412/