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Quality of website aside, this just highlights to me the great divide between the youth of today (digital natives) and the 'older' generation (non-digital nativ

by zazi 16y ago

Quality of website aside, this just highlights to me the great divide between the youth of today (digital natives) and the 'older' generation (non-digital natives). The owner of the Auto shop should have been able to do up a similar website if he had bothered to look around the web for solutions (wordpress, blogger etc). But I guess he wasn't comfortable enough with the internet to do so. Whereas the digital natives fearlessly jumped into the fray and started hacking up a website with little knowledge of the intricacies involved. This gives me great hope for the next generation. Computers in the hands of an entire generation that is not afraid to harness its power (or to muck around with it). I can't wait to see what these digital natives are capable of when they grow up.

ojbyrne 16y ago
Much of the technology of the internet dates to the late sixties. Assuming that there aren't "digital natives" from the "older" generation is ageist. In fact you could assume that many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s are more "native" than youth, because they've been living with technology for longer.
- hnal943 16y ago
  Digital natives are people that can see the benefits in spite of the architecture, not because of it. They see the world as iphones and gmail, not the TCP/IP stack. They assume functionality that is mind blowing to non-natives. It's not ageist to point out that younger people expect more functionality from technology.
  - ojbyrne 16y ago
    Forget "ageist," this seems idiotic. "mind blowing?" People who have been living with technology for decades have seen many "mind blowing" innovations, and they understand that "iphones and gmail" are probably going to be just as ephemeral as innumerable technologies of the past.
    - hnal943 16y ago
      So, your point is that baby boomers on the whole are more comfortable with emerging technology than younger generations? That's absurd on its face.
      - ojbyrne 16y ago
        My point is that "digital natives" are a subset of the general population that cuts across generations. Perhaps the proportions are different, but I'd still bet that the baby boomers have a larger absolute number, even if the proportion is greater for younger generations. Are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, or Bill Gates not "digital natives?" You'd have a hard time arguing that. In general, making an argument based on generations is, by definition, ageist. An easy test is just to, instead of saying "baby boomers" or "Gen X" try the same assertion with "black" or "jewish." If, after the substitution, the assertion sounds racist, chances are it was ageist before the substitution.
- zazi 16y ago
  Someone once told me that when people use 'cutting edge technology' as technology they almost always mean 'technology after they have been born' And yes the term 'digital native' is probably as unclear/flaky as that. =) But I'm not being ageist here or anything of that sort. The fact is that when we are young, we start from a clean slate. The youth of the current generation is probably growing up with the internet and some might say facebook as one of their primary means of connecting with their social network. And that is all they know. They have no concept of life before the internet or even facebook (or google). Whereas for the older generation, we grew up not being able to just google for information. We grew up without having facebook to monitor our social networks. Yes we use facebook and google now, but our perceptions are also colored by the good ol' pre-google and pre-facebook days. There are some of us that understand the appeal of facebook and take to it like fish to water. And there are some of us that do not understand what the fuss is about. For the younger generation, almost all of them take to facebook like fish to water. That is all they know. They have no concept of life before facebook or google. Can you imagine what this does to their world view? I don't think I can and I am excited to see what comes out of their perspectives.

by zazi 16y ago

ojbyrne 16y ago

Much of the technology of the internet dates to the late sixties. Assuming that there aren't "digital natives" from the "older" generation is ageist. In fact you could assume that many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s are more "native" than youth, because they've been living with technology for longer.

hnal943 16y ago
Digital natives are people that can see the benefits in spite of the architecture, not because of it. They see the world as iphones and gmail, not the TCP/IP stack. They assume functionality that is mind blowing to non-natives. It's not ageist to point out that younger people expect more functionality from technology.
- ojbyrne 16y ago
  Forget "ageist," this seems idiotic. "mind blowing?" People who have been living with technology for decades have seen many "mind blowing" innovations, and they understand that "iphones and gmail" are probably going to be just as ephemeral as innumerable technologies of the past.
  - hnal943 16y ago
    So, your point is that baby boomers on the whole are more comfortable with emerging technology than younger generations? That's absurd on its face.
    - ojbyrne 16y ago
      My point is that "digital natives" are a subset of the general population that cuts across generations. Perhaps the proportions are different, but I'd still bet that the baby boomers have a larger absolute number, even if the proportion is greater for younger generations. Are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, or Bill Gates not "digital natives?" You'd have a hard time arguing that. In general, making an argument based on generations is, by definition, ageist. An easy test is just to, instead of saying "baby boomers" or "Gen X" try the same assertion with "black" or "jewish." If, after the substitution, the assertion sounds racist, chances are it was ageist before the substitution.
zazi 16y ago
Someone once told me that when people use 'cutting edge technology' as technology they almost always mean 'technology after they have been born' And yes the term 'digital native' is probably as unclear/flaky as that. =) But I'm not being ageist here or anything of that sort. The fact is that when we are young, we start from a clean slate. The youth of the current generation is probably growing up with the internet and some might say facebook as one of their primary means of connecting with their social network. And that is all they know. They have no concept of life before the internet or even facebook (or google). Whereas for the older generation, we grew up not being able to just google for information. We grew up without having facebook to monitor our social networks. Yes we use facebook and google now, but our perceptions are also colored by the good ol' pre-google and pre-facebook days. There are some of us that understand the appeal of facebook and take to it like fish to water. And there are some of us that do not understand what the fuss is about. For the younger generation, almost all of them take to facebook like fish to water. That is all they know. They have no concept of life before facebook or google. Can you imagine what this does to their world view? I don't think I can and I am excited to see what comes out of their perspectives.