Sunday, November 30, 2008

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

Once upon a time, a time where there was no Internet, people had to go to the library to find out about stuff. Or they had to ask their teacher, the know-it-alls of their time. They type out their assigments on typewriters, those born in the 80s and above using electronic typewriters. Those more unfortunate born earlier had to use the mechanical ones (to tell y'all the truth, I kinda dig them typewriters, they have so much quaintness and character). These people studied hard to be the best in their field, and some do become the best in their field years later.

These breed of people then grow up to be teachers, lecturers, tutors and the likes. We'll call these people digital immigrants.

Fast forward. Enter a new breed of people. Young'uns who was born into a world with computers at their home, broadband internet connection, word processor, digital imaging etc. These people are so well-versed with the cyberspace, Second Life is their life. They keep up with their friends via Friendster or Facebook. They communicate with their friends using Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. We'll call them young'uns digital natives.

These digital natives go to schools, which are administered and taught by the first breed of people, the digital immigrants. (Note : Read here for more explanation about those two breeds.)

So of course, these two breeds think differently.

More often than not, the younger set of digital immigrants will adapt and adopt IT successfully. But then again, they have accents that painfully reminds you that they do not really belong in the digital natives group. Painful reminders like, "Kau print email-email kau tu, jadik proof untuk appraisal kau nanti" or *phone rings, you pick it up* "Masuk bilik aku jap, aku nak tunjuk website ni kat kau..."

*sigh*

Kadang-kadang aku rasa cam nak tatu, God doesn't give you more than what you can handle kat mana-mana anggota badan aku yang aku boleh selalu nampak.

Tuhan tolong aku.

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