#UOSM2008 Topic 1 – Summary
Summary for Topic one
From reading other students blogs and independent research, the general consensus is that this simple division between digital residents and visitors is simply not enough, and if this concept is going to be plausible there needs to be more categorisation within these fields.
Users often fit into both categories due to using the services at different levels of complexity. Some users use Microsoft Outlook but not Facebook, and some use Facebook and haven’t even heard of Outlook! Where do these people fit in? They are residents in some fields and visitors in others.
From the variety of personal experiences that have been shared there seems to be a pattern that the generations above us are more focused when it comes to work, and social is very much a secondary action.
On the other side of the coin, on the whole my generation use the Internet for social uses primarily, and work is a secondary consideration. This could be for a variety of reasons, but the main one in my opinion is that we were exposed to the social development of the internet as we were growing up, MSN messenger and Bebo (remember them?!) and it therefore became integrated into our lives, and became the norm.
Other topics that have been discussed are, if you are a digital resident are you disadvantaged in comparison to a resident. My thoughts on this are definitely yes, there are many productivity benefits from using online tools that makes everyday life that little bit easier.
Personally I try to have everything I need stored in the cloud, whether it is documents through Dropbox, music through Spotify, and pictures through Flickr. This means that as long as I’ve got Internet I’m always connected to everything I need.
The challenge we now face is convincing others that using these services are worthwhile, and that in competitive industries using these tools, such as cloud storage, is going to be essential to keep the business competitive.
In conclusion this topic has been fascinating to research and discuss, the feedback from peers has been particularly interesting. I’m sure that this topic will continue to develop as technology is integrated into ours lives further, and those who don’t adapt are in danger of getting left behind.