#necnative

[nomadicnutmegger-blog]

When it comes to classifying myself as a Digital Native or a Digital Immigrant, I would say that I am a bit of both with more emphasis on the native aspect. I feel this way based on three different facets of my life; social networking, my career and my education.

When it comes to social networking, I thought that I was well versed in this world. I was one of the first people in my town to have a Myspace back in the day, I am pretty active on Facebook and I absolutely love Instagram. However, I was wrong; I am only familiar with a miniscule piece of the world of social networking. Having to create accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, and Storify exposed me to a whole new world (Aladdin pun intended). Though I feel that I am having an easier time navigating around these networks than a Digital Immigrant, I still feel that I am not as proficient as other Digital Natives.

My career is where I feel my Digital Native side shines. My old coworker loved creating continuity binders, printing out all documentation for complaints, storing everything we do in paper case files. She had printed copies of different regulations and would flip through pages in order to find things. To me it was a waste of time, money and space. For instance how it was a waste of time, she would be flipping through pages of a regulation to look something up and it seemed to take an eternity. Whereas I would press ‘ctrl f’ and find what we were looking for within seconds. It was a waste of money because we did not need “hard copies” of everything we have shared drives on our network to store the material, a paper continuity binder is not cost affective in this day and age. And as for space, each of our offices have 2 filing cabinets. Ever since my last coworker left and the new one came in, those filing cabinets are now empty (waiting to be donated to an office full of Digital Immigrants) and all of our case files, and any other documentation are stored electronically.

As far as my education I feel that I lean more on the immigrant side. I would much rather sit in a classroom and interact with the instructor and other students. Online schooling is more convenient for my life style but I feel that I excel more within a real world classroom environment rather than a virtual one. However, on the Digital Native side I appreciate the fact I am able to multi-task. I am able to do school work while I catch some spare time at my office.

So as you can see though I am a mixture of both Digital Native and Digital Immigrant I lean more towards the side of #NECNative

[justind-wheeler-blog]

Digital Native...I think

I originally started typing this assignment labeling myself as a digital immigrant, but 7 words in I was called by my father to walk him through setting up his business Facebook and Twitter pages. It was at that moment that I realized I am more native to the system than I think. I am certainly no pro, but I can navigate my way through the systems and stay current on the events. I was in high school during the startup of MySpace and grew into Facebook through my first attempt at college. I have lived by an iPhone for over 10 years and grown with the apps and systems of efficiency in my personal and professional life. As I look at my elders in business that still use paper calendars and handwritten business plans I realize that I am light years farther into the digital era than those seemingly archaic techniques. Not saying that it is bad, but I am confident that even if my iPhone or iPad went down, I could still access my data with the cloud technology that we have today. #NECNative

[virtualmeowing]

I am a diginal native. I grew up around computers and am familiar with the Information Age. I’ve had tumblr and Facebook since 6th grade. I always have my phone on me and I communicate with people from the internet all the time, people I often have never met in real life. I’m of the opinion that the internet can be a good way to connect with others, just like relationships are be formed outside the internet. Before I go places, I usually read about them on the internet, and what other people say about the place on the internet helps shape my opinion of it. I’m interested in literature and music from all over the world, and I use Instagram, twitter, tumblr, and Facebook to be up to date on these subjects. I use SoundCloud as well to listen to cool new artists. There’s always new content being put out there.

I’ve always liked reading and writing, too, so the internet has always seemed like a natural extension of my propensity to use and manipulate the written word. However, even though I’m a digital native and a millenial, it took a couple years to get used to ebooks and kindles. I still like the “old-fashioned” feel of a book in my hands, but reading a book on my computer or kindle is so much easier—I don’t have to carry books around, make space for them, or physically turn a page; reading on a computer is a more immediate experience, and I can buy a book on Amazon in 5 seconds, as opposed to going to a bookstore. I like having information so easily and quickly accessible.

[rededge87-blog]

#NECImmigrant

Digital native vs digital immigrant. I am considered a digital native because I was born in 1987. The general consensus out there is that anyone born before 1985 is considered a digital immigrant. I have always been heavily into technology, and this has brought me full circle to where we are today. The funny thing is, there are many digital immigrants who are more savvy than us digital natives. For example, my friend Steve was born in 1971, so he is clearly a digital immigrant. However, even though he was devoid of the Internet in his younger years, he was quite savvy with writing code on the old Commodore 64 and Radio Shack model trs-80. Mini digital immigrants fully embrace technology and like us Digital Natives, they don’t know what they would do without it. Nevertheless, they do remember what it was like to only have a landline in your house and always needing to ride your bicycle to the library if you need to find out information on a topic.  Most likely there’s an issue today regarding how some schools who have not fully embraced the digital world, neglect to recognize that Digital Natives could quite possibly need an altered version of today’s course syllabuses. I for one have been able to embrace both of these avenues and angles of Technology as I am an avid user of every type of new technology I can get my hand on. Even though I understand how and why I fall into the category of digital native, I still have a strong grasp on what it is like to be a digital immigrant.

[colleenholt04-blog]

Digital Native

In today’s society it’s weird for someone to walk around without their phone in hand. How often to you see the “flip phone” it’s completely outdated and when we see it in someone’s hand in the street we stare in amazement. I am a digital native. Being 22 I grew up with technology. I learned typing on a computer keyboard instead of a type writer. My education has revolved around the use of technology. I could not imagine not just grabbing my phone and opening safari and googling something really quick. I sometimes think what I would do without it. Today our phones have become almost like an article of clothing for us. I tend to feel “naked” without my phone. Do you ever feel the same way?

Here at NEC we gather everything from our computer. Technology has always been such a huge part of my life. I spend more time on my phone or on my laptop then I do anything else. I go to my laptop for everything. I believe many of us do as well. We have issues functioning without it. For me personally I have never not had a computer or something in that nature in my life. For as long as I could remember there as always been a computer in the house. I could not imagine life without it. I always have my phone on me ready to connect with the world through it. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or I message. I am a digital native.

[djton3e-blog]

Digital Native or Immigrant??

After listening to the explanations on differences between a digital native and immigrant, I was a bit perplexed. Being born in 1981 makes me more of a hybrid than native or immigrant. Depending which group of experts asked, I can fall into Generation X, Y or a millennial catagory.  I grew up with teachers using the chalk board in elementary school, overhead projectors in middle school, and finally computers in high school. As a child, I remember having the original 8 bit Nintendo. It didn’t have memory, so if you didn’t want to lose your game, you had to leave it running for days until you finished. I remember receiving my first computer my freshman year. It was slow, the interface was ugly (Win 95’), it had a RJ-45 jack to plug a land line and came with an America Online 1000 hours free disk.  During my senior year of high school, I took a computer class which helped set up computers for teachers, and built the school’s first website using basic html code. My senior year was when I got my first cell phone, and with it came the greatest game ever for a cell phone, Snake. At the age of 19, I started djing using two analog turntables and a mixer. I spent hundreds on vinyl. A few years later, cd players were all the rage. I never got into cd players because I was nostalgic to my turntables. However, a few years later, dj controllers and laptops were all the rage. Flash forward to today. I work for a company that needs to be innovative to stay competitive. About 75 % of my finances are done though my smart phone. In that last year, all but one of my books have come in the form of ebooks. I have a computer that I use that I use specifically for photoshop, auocad and music (djing and producing) in conjunction with my tablet. I may be a hybrid because of my continual use of technology, nostalgia for books and vinyl, and preferring to make a phone call rather than sending a text. However, I can say that I am a techo nerd which ultimately makes me a digital native.

[necsocialmedia]

Week 1 - Homework assignment

Class: Post your 250-word blog describing which category you belong to (native or immigrant) then post to your personal Tumblr page with the correct hashtag.