Reading Nathan and Philippa’s articles on social media and more broadly, the relationship between digital technology and society, I could feel the hairs on my arm prickle with interest. My relationship with digital technology is one that I have reflected upon over and over again; the tension between its affordances, understanding how to effectively use it to my advantage, and also the assumption that because I was born after a certain date it is anticipated that I will be bilingual in tech-speak.
It was whilst completing my dissertation that I really became interested in this area. My research focused on student experience and as part of this – and as identified by Philippa in her article – the concept of a digital divide and the terms ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrant’ were introduced to me.
Born in the 1980’s, I am considered a ‘digital native’, however, I must confess I have never felt particularly digitally savvy. In fact whilst completing my studies I became acutely aware – and ultimately very dependant – on the affordances of the digital technology available to me and how best I could utilise it to ultimately make myself ‘smarter Caitlin’.
Completing my literature review I scoured dozens of online journals from different countries and different cultures. In our world of interconnectivity, we have access to unlimited sources and worldwide discussions at our very fingertips, and in the case of drafting my literature review, was it possible, too much information. Every article I found led to another and in a world so digitally connected, the amount of information available to me continued to grow.
As I reflected on this, and battled with myself most days to hold off on printing another journal article, I started thinking about my desire to continue searching for articles, but yet also the fact that I printed each article, preferring to read it on paper than on the screen.
This subsequently became a bone of contention. I wanted to (and was able to) use the digital technology available to research my subject area, however when it came to reading, digesting and using the information I found, I wanted it on paper and to scribble notes and annotate the text by hand.
The more I thought about this, the more I became interested in my relationship with digital technology and kept revisiting the concept of creating ‘smarter Caitlin’.
I began to think about the ways in which digital technology was ‘amplifying’ my intelligence and started to investigate the idea of learnable intelligence – or as suggested by one theorist, the idea of us being homo sapiens digital. I found it interesting to compare my relationship with digital technology to that of my nine-year-old sister who at a glance appears to be a digital whizz, however I started to wonder; how much does she actually understand in terms of what digital technology can allow you to do and achieve? As I thought about it, and questioned her understanding of digital technology, I arrived at the conclusion that whilst technology may never replace our own intuition or judgement, it definitely has the power to both enhance and extend our cognitive skills and abilities – but crucially – only if we are aware of the way in which to use and utilise it.
As I write this, I have just become aware that on another tab I have open, a Facebook notification has just reminded me that a friend’s birthday is coming up this week. A fantastic little tool that means I (hopefully) need never miss a birthday again.
I must admit though, I’m not too keen on writing birthday posts. I find it far more satisfying to sit with a pen and card and write a happy birthday greeting, another little contradiction I am only too aware off.
What are you thoughts on the great digital divide? Share your experiences with us below (or on a postcard!)
Author: Caitlin O’Connor
This reminds me a lot of the process we went through with introducing digital storytelling to students. I believe that the term ‘digital native’ is probably accurate, insofar that one can be born into a networked society and be able to easily pick up the skills needed to use the technology. However, like a native of any country, one does not necessarily have to understand or appreciate it. Perhaps analogous cars, that one need not understand the intricacies of the internal combustion engine, nor be able to appreciate the effects of fossil fuels on the environment to drive one. I suspect that you are right in saying that ‘digital native’ does not equate to ‘digital guru’, and that perhaps the experience of having to adapt to a changing environment may in fact give ‘digital immigrants’ the edge in this domain. So indeed the digital divide may be more about the deep cognitive appreciation of technology and its effect on us, rather than the simple ability to use it?
I was lucky enough to have an IT teacher for a mum, she taught me from an extremely young age so I’ve always had a huge advantage over most people, and have been able to investigate my personal understanding of what makes someone tech savvy. I don’t believe it can be defined as someone’s ability to use any form of technology to forward their own knowledge, that’s very basic, in fact the main focus of modern technology is ease of use for maximum sales across any demographic. What I believe defines someone as tech savvy is their ability to identify and separate the information received through such things as social media, news websites, and even instant messaging. Its extremely important that anything read from a screen must be taken in a mindful and subjective sense, imperative aspects of human communication such as emotion, body language, tone of voice etc define how we allow information to influence us.