1984 - George Orwell vs. Marc Prensky
One of this week's readings was "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" (2001) by Marc Prensky. I had heard the term bandied about in media and articles, but had not read Prensky's actual article. When I did, I could not help being appalled at his theory, and amazed at the irony of his drop-dead date of 1984 that relegates you to being either a digital native or digital immigrant. Branded for life.
Prensky claims we've reached a "singularity" in society because of the rapid dissemination of digital technology. Per his defining date of 1984...those born afterward are digital natives, blessed with exposure to digital technology from an early age that is so compelling that "it is very likely that our student's physical brains have changed." And those born before1984? We digital immigrants have digital "accents" that are humorous legacies of our experience with digital technology such as bringing people into your office to show them a website instead of emailing the URL (what about the human need for interaction and F2F contact?). This smacks of cultural or ethnic separatism.
Prensky concludes that "Smart adult immigrants accept that they don't know about their new world and take advantage of their kids to help the learn and integrate." This is appalling to me on so many levels, and resonates with the Thought Police and Big Brother concepts in Orwell's 1984. That to be different is to be ignorant of new ways, not acceptable, and that people must look to others to integrate.
What about self-reliance? Self-motivation? Independence and originality? Maybe this irritates me the most because I live in a household with TWO students in college...I am the adult learner almost done with my M.S. in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies, and my son is completing his A.S. in Sound and Music Technology. While he creates, scores and mixes sound recordings that amaze me, I have created various instructional projects, including recently a high-tech virtual learning game on protecting the coastal environment that he thought was fantastic. We bounce ideas off each other, encourage each other and learn digitally, each in our own successful way.
And although 1984 divides us in time, I refuse to accept the name "digital immigrant" when I was embracing the evolution of digital technology from the beginning before he ever had to. The bottom line is that we should not be labeling people, compartmentalizing them and defining their abilities and talents based on age. Not only does it smack of discrimination, but it is wholly inaccurate. People are capable of amazing achievements in learning based on their interests, motivation, abilities and opportunities.
I totally agree. It's a little absurd. My 90 year old grandfather uses an iPhone and has been using the internet just fine for years. I think a better divide is "people who are comfortable with tech" vs. "people who aren't" (ha). I don't think age is any indication of how tech savvy someone is. I remember in the early 90's my mom was building computers and she was already in her 30's by then. That's interesting that your son is getting his degree in Sound and Music Tech. I'm a musician heavily involved in that world too.
ReplyDeleteThat arbitrary date of 1984 does not seem to allow that some exceptional individual born before may be just as proficient as those born after. In fact, the people who developed the beginnings of this path we were on would be called immigrants.
ReplyDeleteI think of the late Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures) and her abilities. She was not a Facebook person but stayed active in mathematical forums through the web for many years after she retired. Her family kept her engaged through visits and their own social media, but she did not want that kind of online interaction on her own.
On the other side of that argument, sailors born after 1984 have never deployed without e-mail; they do not understand waiting for days or weeks to find out what was happening at home. They do not know the relief to finally get a phone when in port and hear a voice from home. Yeah, they are different.
This is a wonderful post! I cannot agree with you enough about how offensive and outdated some of the thoughts were in the Presnky article and I have to agree with Lindsay's comment above that the true divide is probably those who are comfortable or want to explore tech, and those who are not/do not. My grandparents on my father's side, for example, have iPhones, are on Facebook, they get on Zoom every Friday for our virtual happy hour, but my grandparents on my mother's side do not have internet at their house, they do not have a computer, they have flip phone mobile phones, and absolutely zero social media accounts. These sets of grandparents are not far off in age but live in very different digital worlds simply because of the choices they have made and their comfort level with technology. I think it is wonderful that you and your son are able to bounce ideas off of each other and push each other to become better- but yes, I agree the terminology and rigid definitions used by Prensky are not overly helpful for actually progressing society forward and decreasing the digital divide among us.
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