Topic 1 – Reflection.
Prior to researching the concepts of ‘digital visitors’ and ‘digital residents’ for topic 1, these were not concepts I had actively considered before. Whilst I have always been subconsciously aware that there is clearly a divide in the ‘skill’ as such between different online users, until being set the task of topic 1 I had not consciously considered the distinctions between them.
When researching this topic I found myself questioning the validity of Prensky’s extreme comparisons between ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’; based on my own experiences I have come across many examples of individuals whose technological use of the internet varies and contradicts the native and immigrant divide proposed by Prensky, such as my Father (arguably of the ‘immigrant’ era) having almost equal technological skill to that of myself (arguably of the ‘native’ era). I feel that the ‘spectrum’ proposed by White and Cornu is much more relevant than Prensky’s theory to the digital world we are now entering, considering the motivation behind online behaviours and not categorising due to the generation in which the user was born. However, I still feel that the spectrum is too vague; whilst there is clearly an extreme at either end, I don’t feel it is clear where on the spectrum I fit. I feel my online behaviours can take the form of ‘resident’ behaviours or ‘visitor’ behaviours depending on why I am online.
Since having time to reflect on the topic, and by broadening my understanding through reading other students blogs, I feel that the definitions of ‘residents’ and ‘visitors’ are too extreme and make it difficult to understand where on the spectrum I fit. I feel perhaps the next stage in understanding the varying degrees of internet use between individuals should be to consider multiple categories as a more effective way to categorise certain internet users. Horrigan (2007) identified 10 categories to subgroup internet users into and I feel that as the digital world in which we live in advances it calls for even more categories of internet and technological usage to be identified.
Overall, I really enjoyed researching this topic and I’ve found it has helped me to begin to understand the complexities of our behaviours online. Using a blog has provoked meaningful thoughts and I feel the discussions with other students and reading other students blogs has helped increase my understanding of the topic compared to my findings alone. I’m really looking forward to learning more in the next topic!
