Topic 1, Page 11

Many assume that everyone uses the internet in similar ways. Indeed, my use of ‘everyone’ underlines how blind some can be to the idea that in 2017, 9% of the UK population had never used the internet. Using the internet isn’t a highly specialised skill, but it is a highly individualised one. Web usage is contextual — it depends wholly on its relevance to one’s everyday life, and is directly affected by the implications of class, gender, ethnicity and social standing. Continue reading →

Many assume that everyone uses the internet in similar ways. Indeed, my use of ‘everyone’ underlines how blind some can be to the idea that in 2017, 9% of the UK population had never used the internet. Using the internet isn’t a highly specialised skill, but it is a highly individualised one. Web usage is contextual — it depends wholly on its relevance to one’s everyday life, and is directly affected by the implications of class, gender, ethnicity and social standing. Continue reading →

Living on the web has a clear set of identifiable advantages, as covered last week on my blog. However, when access to the web is difficult this has a detrimental effect on individuals (Robinson et al., 2015); thus leading to digital differences. This then reflects inequalities within society onto the web (Badger, 2013) – which in turn allows us to understand how macro factors can play into digital differences. Continue reading →

Fig 1: My Representation of van Dijk’s conceptualisation of Digital Users Digital Differences is a concept I find is often overlooked, so I was pleased to have time to explore the concept. In Web Science, I looked it Digital Differences last year in Prof Susan Halford’s excellent SOCI3073 module. I noticed that this module chimed closely with Section 1.11 of the Learning in the Network Age MOOC. Continue reading →

Created by Author on www.wordclouds.com Having researched what it means to be a ‘native’, ‘immigrant’, ‘visitor’ and ‘resident’, I understand their strengths and weaknesses and the assumptions underpinning them. Before I started this topic, I made assumptions on how I would fit into Prensky’s digital ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’ idea (Prensky, 2001). Continue reading →

As the 21st century was ushered into being with the dawn of the new millennium, the world changed forever. Continue reading →

One of the key points that I have learnt from topic 1 is that the distinction between the two categories boils down to individuals engaging with the internet differently. Holly’s post likened digital visitor’s use of the internet as a vacation and residents use to a world traveller which is a good metaphor for the distinction between the groups. Continue reading →

For this week’s topic, we were given the task of explaining the concepts Digital ‘visitors’ and ‘residents’. These terms originally seemed new to me until I realized that they were developments which had been made to the infamous terms of Digital ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’ popularized by Prensky. Continue reading →

For this week’s topic, we were given the task of explaining the concepts Digital ‘visitors’ and ‘residents’. These terms originally seemed new to me until I realized that they were developments which had been made to the infamous terms of Digital ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’ popularized by Prensky. Continue reading →

I’ve discussed the differences in digital competencies of family and friends before, but never knew that there were theories surrounding this until this module.  I’ve since found myself analysing my friends’ online behaviour more, and classifying them as either Digital Residents or Digital Visitors (White and Cornu).  I also looked at my own past online behaviour, mainly through looking at my Facebook timeline, and classified myself as a Digital Resident. Continue reading →

Although Topic 1 was about us dipping our toes into the blogging water, it had a great impact on me. At first I was more focused on creating a clear image of what “digital residents” and “digital visitors” are. I read through Prensky’s, Le Cornu, and White’s papers so I could understand their theories. Continue reading →