Do digital natives exist?
‘There are a number of labels to describe the young people currently studying at school, college and university. They include the digital natives, the net generation, the Google generation or the millennials.’ (Digital natives: where is the evidence?, 2009)
According to this article by Ellen Helsper and Rebecca Enyon, digital natives do exist. They are seem as the ‘new kids on the block’, up and coming students of high school and university. Most of us (yes, I am a digital native too) were born into an age where technology was a new thing to everyone. Sure computers weren’t the size of a room, and humankind had already made a trip to the moon. However we were born in the bloom of the technology age, where old, slow technology was rapidly being replaced by faster and better technology. We grew up with handheld devices that developed with us. As we got smarter and smarter, our digital devices got smarter and faster along with us. Growing up with these devices and new technologies at hand, we grew and developed, learning new things about this thing called ‘technology’. While the older generations might have been scared about technology, it took the brave and bold younger generation mere moments to figure everything out and become a digital native.
Digital natives do exist, they are in our education system, or recently out of the education system, looking for jobs, or working. Digital natives grew up with technology, but technology also grew with digital natives.
Thanks for reading.
Link - http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27739/1/Digital_natives_(LSERO).pdf
Ben I totally agree with your post, as a digital native myself I can see where you are coming from. You may need to include what makes us different from people who have learnt technology compared to people who were born throughout technology. Overall a very interesting post :)