Digital Natives

In her chapter, “Literacy: Are Today’s Youth Digital Natives?” Boyd makes her argument clear that the term, digital natives, does not accurately define youth today and that the term is actually problematic. Boyd argues that while youth today are active participants in social media and online, youth today are not born with, or do not inherently possess digital knowledge and/or skills that define the term, digital natives. She argues that some youth still face challenges in the networked world. Teens in fact vary in their knowledge in technology, and those who are more challenged must “fend for themselves” to make sense of the technologies rather than “digital immigrants” who receive more help and aid that youth could also benefit from. She writes, “Being exposed to information or imagery through the internet and engaging with social media do not make someone a savvy interpreter of the meaning behind these artifacts.” Just because of the generation teens today were born into, teens are not naturally digital natives nor critical contributors in the networked world and therefore require opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge as digital immigrants do.

Prensky, on the other hand, is adamant in his claim that teens today define digital natives. In Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Prensky writes that teens “have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.” Because of this, “today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.”

As a teacher of teenagers and preteenagers, and having been born into “gen Z” myself, I agree with Boyd that an entire generation of people cannot be categorized into one term such as digital natives. While it cannot be denied that youth today are born into a digital world, as teachers we know that people do not acquire and possess knowledge in the same way, or unilaterally as Prensky is claiming. Race, socioeconomic status, and other factors contribute to an individual’s ability to access and thrive in technology. I think personally that Prensky’s term is too encompassing, not accounting for certain populations within this generation that do not define the term of a digital native.