I Am a Foreigner

I am a Digital Native. No, actually I am not. I can barely turn on my computer and sadly, I still look at the keys when I type. Though if you asked Mark Prensky, author of "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" , he would tell you that simply based on my year of birth, I am. Again, I disagree. Prensky's model is far too black and white, too in or out for me to accept. It is almost as though he thinks that just because one is born in this "digital" age, that person is born with an innate knowledge of modern technology. When talking about the modern student Prensky says, "Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet." Really? All native speakers? I don't think I even used google until 2006, and I still do NOT have a facebook account. Now, I'm not naive or ignorant to the fact that there are outliers in every group or exceptions to every rule, which I may be in this case, however I don't think that Prensky left any room for exceptions in his model.

In Henry Jenkins's "Reconsidering Digital Immigrants" , he identifies and refutes the generalizations made by Prensky. Jenkins makes some excellent points, especially in reference to "digital immigrants", saying:

Digital immigrants are being defined by what they lack with cultural difference seen as an obstacle they must overcome if they are going to fully assimilate into the modern age.

Digital immigrants are seen as imposing old world standards on the inhabitants of a new world and of getting in the way of their sons and daughter's opportunities to achieve.

Keep in mind what a high portion of the folks working in Silicon Valley today are immigrants -- information workers from around the world whose expertise and mastery over these new technologies are allowing American companies to succeed. So, real digital immigrants can probably outcompute most of the so-called digital natives.

Among the most important Jenkins raises though, is what these terms imply with the relationship between young and old. He says:

"Talking about digital natives and digital immigrants tends to exagerate the gaps between adults, seen as fumbling and hopelessly out of touch, and youth, seen as masterful. It invites us to see contemporary youth as feral, cut off from all adult influences, inhabiting a world where adults sound like the parents in the old Peanuts cartoons -- whah, whah, whah, whah -- rather than having anything meaningful to say to their offspring. In the process, it disempowers adults, encouraging them to feel helpless, and thus justifying their decision not to know and not to care what happens to young people as they move into the on-line world."

I believe this exageration of the generational gaps to be the biggest flaw of Prensky's model. It not only makes adults feel "disempowered" or "helpless", but also potentially creates a gap within the individual generations themselves. Like Jenkins, I believe these metaphors are doing more harm than good, making those "digital immigrants" feel more like outsiders and that understanding information in this age is an innate skillset that they were born without.