Explain the concept of digital “visitors” and “residents” drawing upon your reading and your own online experiences to date in support of the points that you make.
In his work Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants from On the horizon (2001), US technologist Marc Prensky, first coined the term “digital native” to describe the young generation born after 1980, who were confident in using ‘all the…toys and tools of the digital age’ (Prensky, 2001,p.1), such as the internet and video games. In contrast to the Y and Z generations who were so at ease with these new technologies, Prensky suggested that previous generations occupied the position of “Digital Immigrants”, who were ‘forced to adapt to a world of digital media after (many) years of leading “pre-digital” lifestyles’ (Selwyn, 2009, p.369).
Initially, Prensky’s theory was very popular however, as David White and Alison Le Cornu note,
‘Natives and Immigrants and immigrants were hypothetical children of their time… as our understanding has developed, it is appropriate to re-evaluate what has previously been accepted'(White, Le Cornu, 2011)
and therefore challenge the notion that older web users and learners are handicapped due to their age, whilst younger web users are automatically privileged and more confident on the web thanks to their age. Many other critics such as Sue Bennet take issue with Prensky’s typology of Native and Immigrant and note that whilst many young people are
‘highly adept with technology and rely on it for a range of information gathering and communication activities…there also appears to be a significant proportion of young people who do not have the levels of access or technology skills predicted by proponents of the digital native idea’. (Bennet et al, 2008, p.777)
She then goes onto mention that variation can exist just as easily between the Digital Immigrant generation with some older people being just as tech-savvy and comfortable with new technology as their younger generation Y and Z counterparts.
The growing reflections and re-evaluations of Prensky’s theory has given rise to a new typology which is now popularly known as Digital Visitors and Digital Residents, which is seen by many to respond much better to the current situation.
So what exactly are Digital Visitors and Digital Residents in today’s world?
- Is the web a place to live or simply a collection of tools? -
Visitors
Visitors are web users who see the internet as a simple tool to enable them to achieve certain goals. For instance, a Visitor would use the internet to search for a specif piece of information and then would be quite happy to log off after finding it, satisfied with the result. Visitors are anonymous users and ‘their activity [is] invisible to all but the databases running the Web sites they use’ (White, Le Cornru, 2011). Furthermore, Visitors do not have a persistent online profile – they might use Skype or the web to book holidays but they are not avid users of social media and might not have Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Visitors are ‘sceptical of services that offer them the ability to put their identity online and don’t feel the need to express themselves by participating in online culture in the same manner as a Resident’ (TALL blog). They are users of the web rather than members and use pre-made content rather than generate it like Residents.
Residents
In contrast to Visitors, Residents are individuals who actively live out a percentage of their life online and are frequent users of the internet and social media. They view the web as a social space like a coffee shop where they can interact with others and play out their social lives and it is crucial for their interaction with friends and their social circle. It is a place in which relations can be formed and extended and connections with like-minded individuals can easily be made.
As mentioned on TALL Blog, the ‘web supports the projection of their identity and facilitates relationships’, enabling them to construct their online identity and portray themselves in certain lights to others, something which is very important for Residents. Moreover, it also enables Residents to express their thoughts and opinions via social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The internet is so important for Residents that ‘when [they] log off, an aspect of their persona remains.’ (White, Le Cornru, 2011) and a typical Resident would be frequently found uploading pictures to their Instagram page or tweeting.
Like Visitors, Residents use the web as a tool to complete specific actions like online banking and booking holidays, but they are much more actively engaged with the web and create and generate their own content.
However, although Residents and Visitors and their relationship with the web seem very different, the Visitor / Resident typology should be understood as a continuum and NOT a binary opposition. Our status as Resident or Visitor can fluctuate very easily depending on our current situations and why we are using the Web. For instance, at the moment I am very much a Resident of the web, through the active use of this blog and my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages (with the latter to enhance my employability) however, during the summer months I was an infrequent web user and used the Internet to search for specific information like train times as a typical Visitor would do. The typology of Visitor / Resident is not black and white, but offers a much more relevant set of criterion for web users than Prensky’s Digitial Natives and Digital Immigrants.
Sources
Selwyn, N. (2009) The digital native- myth and reality. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 61(4), [Online], Available at https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/Zadar/Readings/Selwyn%20dig%20natives,%20Aslib%20Proceedings%202009.pdf [Accessed 08/10/2014]
White, D and Le Cornru A. (2011) Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement Vol 16 Available at http://firstmonday.org/article/view/3171/3049%20https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/Zadar/Readings/Selwyn%20dig%20natives,%20Aslib%20Proceedings%202009.pdf [Accessed 08/10/2014]
White, D. (2008) Not ‘Natives’ & ‘Immigrants’ but ‘Visitors’ & ‘Residents’, TALL blog, University of Oxford, Available at: http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2008/07/23/not-natives-immigrants-but-visitors-residents/ [Accessed 08/10/2014]
Bennett,S et al. (2008). “The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence,” British Journal of Educational Technology, volume 39, number 5, pp. 775–786 in Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement.
