The Difference Between Digital Natives and Youths Being in the era of technology it is obvious that it is thriving and spreading quicker than ever, with some people avoiding the new advancements, but the majority following right behind. In a chapter called “are today’s youth digital natives?” from danah boyd’s book, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, she defines the contrast between digital natives and digital immigrants. danah boyd is a youth researcher, social media scholar, and campaigner at Microsoft Research. She defines digital natives as “native speakers” of technology while digital immigrants learn overtime and adapt to the new advancements. Published in a fairly recent time of February 2014, boyd explains how it
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She states “As scholars at Harvard’s Berkman Center have shown, search engines like Google shape the quality of information that youth experience. Teens view Google as the center of the digital information universe, even though they have little understanding of how the search results are produced, let alone any awareness of how personalization affects what they see” (boyd 186). By stating a fact that most people do not realize, boyd hopes her audience will understand her point that filter bubbles are negatively affecting them. She explains that the filter bubbles in Google are blocking people’s access to the sea of information, thus disabling them to maximize the efficiency Google is supposed to offer. By using the credible research of scholars from Harvard, boyd is trying to reach out to her audience of people that influence teens such as parents or teachers, and clarify one of the reasons why they should not assume teens are digital natives. These filter bubbles withholds the knowledge technology offers from everyone especially teens, since they are the majority that uses …show more content…
Prensky invented and popularized the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” and holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale, and Harvard. He argues that people should use these terms to categorize the youth and older generation because it accurate. In the interview he compares this concept with cultures and explains how people who are born into a country or culture, and grow up with it surrounding them, have more instinctive knowledge than people who move to the country or culture later on. He says, “There are instincts, feelings, comfort, technology is your friend, this is not something you have to struggle to learn, it’s not something you have to read books about, it’s none of that stuff. It’s our stuff”(Prensky). This shows that Presnky believes that because the youths were born into the technology era, it is instinctive and natural for them to know and be skilled with it. He thinks that for the older adults that were not born into the era, it is much harder and they can never really compare to the youths because for the youths, it is “their” thing whereas for the older generation is it the youths “thing” that they have to struggle to adapt to. This completely challenges boyd’s claim that we should not conclude all youths are “digital natives” because Prensky believes in
She states “As scholars at Harvard’s Berkman Center have shown, search engines like Google shape the quality of information that youth experience. Teens view Google as the center of the digital information universe, even though they have little understanding of how the search results are produced, let alone any awareness of how personalization affects what they see” (boyd 186). By stating a fact that most people do not realize, boyd hopes her audience will understand her point that filter bubbles are negatively affecting them. She explains that the filter bubbles in Google are blocking people’s access to the sea of information, thus disabling them to maximize the efficiency Google is supposed to offer. By using the credible research of scholars from Harvard, boyd is trying to reach out to her audience of people that influence teens such as parents or teachers, and clarify one of the reasons why they should not assume teens are digital natives. These filter bubbles withholds the knowledge technology offers from everyone especially teens, since they are the majority that uses …show more content…
Prensky invented and popularized the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” and holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale, and Harvard. He argues that people should use these terms to categorize the youth and older generation because it accurate. In the interview he compares this concept with cultures and explains how people who are born into a country or culture, and grow up with it surrounding them, have more instinctive knowledge than people who move to the country or culture later on. He says, “There are instincts, feelings, comfort, technology is your friend, this is not something you have to struggle to learn, it’s not something you have to read books about, it’s none of that stuff. It’s our stuff”(Prensky). This shows that Presnky believes that because the youths were born into the technology era, it is instinctive and natural for them to know and be skilled with it. He thinks that for the older adults that were not born into the era, it is much harder and they can never really compare to the youths because for the youths, it is “their” thing whereas for the older generation is it the youths “thing” that they have to struggle to adapt to. This completely challenges boyd’s claim that we should not conclude all youths are “digital natives” because Prensky believes in