Digital natives

Digital natives

The term digital native describes a person who has grown up in the digital age, rather than having acquired familiarity with digital systems as an adult, as a digital immigrant. Both terms were used as early as 1996 as part of the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.

Digital natives’ are generally born after the 1980s and they are comfortable in the digital age, because they grew up using technology, but ‘digital immigrants’ are those who are born before 1980s and they are fearful about using technology. ‘Digital immigrants’ are the older crew, they weren’t raised in a digital environment. The term digital immigrant mostly applies to individuals who were born before the spread of the digital technology and who were not exposed to it at an early age. Digital natives are the opposite of digital immigrants, they have been interacting with technology from childhood. According to Prensky, digital natives are the generation of young people who are “native speakers”