In the era of neo Millennium, the world has moved from analog to digital. Consequently, many
new technological devices have been developed and become integrated seemingly in our daily
lives. The lifestyle have been dominantly influenced by these
Innovations in which we believe that they can facilitate our way of living. We are now
surrounded by E and I, such as E-
Government, E-commerce, E-learning, I-pod, I-phone, I-calendar, and so on. We, therefore,
have to follow these technologies and tune ourselves to them.
The border line between the period before the years 2000 and the years after clearly
separate two generations: the old and the young, particularly in terms of digital literacy
skills (which is needed in the present days). The views towards technologies of these people
(the generational digital divide) are definitely different. The new media may be seen as
exotic, extraordinary things where the young (so-called “the net gen” may view these
innovations as ordinary and even banal (Herring,
2008). Due to this perspective, some adults feel separated or have no confident in using
these media, and sometimes even compare themselves with the net gen. Let’s take my dad as
example. A few years ago, I taught him to use the VOIP application. He took a note and when
we tried to chat everything was fine. Until the monitor turn on the screen saver mode, he
was so nervous and worried that he might have made something wrong.
In fact, even though these kids are comfortably using such digital device, it does not
guarantee that they have that level of digital proficiency (Oblinger, 2008). Therefore,
adults should stop exoticizing this net gen and view digital devices the same as other tools
in their period. Because the new media today will eventually become the normal things in the
near future!
References:
Herring, Susan C. (2008). Questioning the generational divide: Technological exoticism and
adult construction of online youth identity. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, identity, and
digital media (pp. 71-92). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on
Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.071?cookieSet=1
Oblinger, D. G. (2008). Growing up with Google: What it means to education. Becta: Emerging
technologies for learning, 3, 10-29. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from
http://partners.becta.org.uk/upload-
dir/downloads/page_documents/research/emerging_technologies08_chapter1.pdf
Tags: Millennials
