The Sociological Approach to Digital Natives in Gasser and Palfrey's Born Digital

1284 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of digital technology on society

In Urs Gassers and Jon Palfreys, Born Digital, both authors take a sociological approach on analyzing and interpreting the new phenomenon known as the emergence of Digital Natives, or the part of society born after 1980. The main thesis for Born Digital that Urs Gassers and Jon Palfrey were trying to transcend, was how individuals who are Born Digital are transforming the world we live in. Digital Natives are transforming our world because of their interactions and intuit with technology and the web. Those born after 1980 have grown up in a networked world and are different, in sometimes enigmatic ways, from those born before them. In Palfrey and Gasser's view, the digital natives promise to make astonishing contributions to society, but also face daunting problems. It is the authors' view that as a society we must do all we can to enable the progress, of Digital Natives, while trying to create the organizations and values necessary to protect them from the threats that they face. In addition, self-perception of self is becoming slightly effected in either a positive or detrimental way, depending on the individual. These self-perception changes are in turn changing the way we react with society in the reality. These individuals known as digital native’s have a strong knowledge for technology and the working of the internet because they were born into it. We are now living in an era where people who grew up without technology are being forced to learn and adapt to a world where technology is becoming very prevalent in everyday life. Being born into a world where technology is emerging, assuming they were born in an industrial economy, they have the benefit of not being too far behind the digital immigrants. In many homes ...

... middle of paper ...

...s how it is very much informative and it aims to educate both Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. The weakness that I found in this book is that even though the book in entirely about Digital Natives, it was constructed for Digital Immigrants and a lot of the book is spent belittling the Digital Native generation. This book is a good tool for parents and teachers, because it will help them become more involved in what their kids or students will be doing on the internet and how we can protect them from things that can be dangerous on the internet. This book touched on many good points, and I think that the biggest weakness in this book is that it does not discuss the part of our world who economically cannot access many technologies and how even though kids born after 1980 in these areas are considered digital natives when they have never used a technology.

Show More
Related

  • Digital Natives and Immigrants: What Brain Research Tells Us' by Nancy K. Herther

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author claims that the working of a human brain is deeply affected by the technological advances of the current age. Closely administered behavior of Digital Natives reveals that they have sharper cognitive skills as compared to the Digital Immigrants of the previous generation. She begins by quoting Palfrey and Gasser as her counter-argument, who acknowledge the difference between the current and previous generations, thus: “These kids are different. They study, work, write and interact with each other in ways that are very different from the ways that you di...

    Read More

  • Growing Up Tethered By Sherry Turkle

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    She argues, “Now I suggest that the culture in which they develop tempts them into narcissistic ways of relating to the world” (244). The author argues that the society in which young adults grow up, reflects on their view of the world. Growing up in a technologically advanced society, teens seem ill prepared to deal with their day to day surroundings that require social interaction. Many millennials show little interest in anything dealing in the past. Instead, they are focused on the future and the next great technological advancement. Lastly, at the end of her essay, Turkle expresses the true social issues of teens due to the abundance of technology. She claims, “teenagers who will only ‘speak’ online, who rigorously avoid face-to-face encounters, who are in text connect with their parents fifteen or twenty times a day, who deem even a telephone call ‘too much’ (243). Turkle claims that there are consequences resulting on the heavy reliance of technology. Teens only speak over text and cannot even speak on the telephone, because they are too internal. Rather than speaking externally with others, teens are quiet while only communicating with themselves and over the phone. They would rather write words, than speak them. This is creating a generation of young adults who are not comfortable in normal social

    Read More

  • Technology's Impact on Brain and Lifestyle: A Comparative Analysis

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “‘Plug In’ Better: A Manifesto”, technology writer and commentator Dr. Alexandra Samuel states that she believe that there is a middle ground between completely “plugging in” and “unplugging”. She states that we should approach our online interactions in the same ways we approach our offline ones. In “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” (part of the New York Times’ “Your Brain on Computers” series), journalist Matt Richtel details technology’s effects on an actual family and recounts their experiences. Although Drs. Restak and Samuel are both widely respected in their individual fields, Mr. Richtel’s journalistic career has been almost exclusively devoted to studying technology’s impact on our lives and attention, and his views are voiced loudly throughout his work, even though they are not explicitly stated.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Jean Twenge Has The Smartphone Destroyed A Generation

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Technology has always been at the forefront of the world’s mind, for as long as anyone can remember. The idea of “advancing” has been a consistent goal among developers. However, recently the invention of smartphones broke out into the world of technology, causing millions of people to become encapsulated in a world of knowledge at their fingertips. Jean Twenge elaborates on the impacts of the smartphone on the younger generation in her article “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” Twenge’s article is just a sliver of the analysis that she presents in her book “IGen.” Twenge, a professor of psychology at San

    Read More

  • Can You Hear Me Now?

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.

    Read More

  • Internet: The Catalyst for Collective Intelligence

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Today we have something that works in the same way, but for everyday people: the Internet, which encourages public thinking and resolves multiples on a much larger scale and at a pace more dementedly rapid. It is now the world’s most powerful engine for putting heads together” (“Smarter Than you think: How Technology is Changing our Minds for the Better,” The Penguin Press). The Internet has assisted the under thirty generation in working together and gaining understanding of how the world works in a faster way. The under thirty generation is more racially and ethnically diverse than the previous generations. They have access to more technology and when they use that information they can become smarter than previous generations. The under

    Read More

  • Marcus and Goldwasser vs. Technology

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is evident that Ruth Marcus’s “Cyberspace Dunderheads” and Goldwasser’s “What’s the matter with kids today?” share common objectives. Both articles concur that advances in technology have restructured our present and future existence in various ways. Communication, social networking, and obtaining knowledge have all been affected from technology’s advances, according to the two authors. Although their articles have similarities, all of their views and opinions do not coincide .Goldwasser and Marcus chose different avenues of expressing their opinions.

    Read More

  • Negative Essay: How Does Technology Helps Our Society?

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first essay, What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow up in Cyberspace by Brent Staples, there were several interesting points made about whether technology helps or harms our everyday lives. Social networking has increased the ability to socialize with people all around the world in a revolutionary way. Being able to access so many social oriented websites, it has helped advance our connections by allowing the elderly who had been isolated before they gained access to the web. However, even though it has increased the potential of communicative opportunity, it has also brought some harmful reality to light. While increasing the connections of the elderly, research shows that it is beginning to isolate the younger generations. The youth of today are losing the

    Read More

  • Death Of The Cyberflaneur Analysis

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article, “The Death of The CyberFlaneur” written by journalist Evgeny Morozov, discusses the social implications of technology. Morozov’s purpose is to inform the reader bout what a cyberflaneur was and how in 1998 some people believed cyberflaneur would progress and become known to many others. What is cyberflanuer, well cyberflaneur is a person who surfs the internet no intentions to finding something. Morozov demonstrates through ethos how cyberflaneur has declined. He utilizes a tone of credibility throughout his essay by quoting and naming important web sites and people.

    Read More

  • Digital Immigrants

    1907 Words  | 4 Pages

    technologically savvy learners? The term ‘digital native’ itself refers to those who were born or raised during the age of digital technology; this contrasts with Prensky’s concept of a ‘digital immigrant – i.e. someone who was born prior to the rise and spread of digital technologies ().

    Read More

  • Essay On Disappearance Of Childhood

    2698 Words  | 6 Pages

    Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing Up Digital: The rise of the net generation. New York, NY: Mc-Graw Hill Companies Inc. .

    Read More

  • How is technology affecting the younger generations' perceptions of morality and the world?

    1406 Words  | 3 Pages

    The advent of the internet signaled a revolutionary shift for society, in which participation in massive amounts of information was easily and rapidly accessible to any connected country. This digital revolution gave rise to monolithic digital communities that dominate the web and strongly influence the globe; Twitter helped Belarusian youth organize flash-protests against their authoritarian government in 2006, while Wikileaks continues to serve as a public international clearing-house for whistle-blowers. But despite these resounding stories of success, concern is spreading that there is an underlying problem with our digitally enhanced society – especially in the western world. Widespread debate has been sparked by the digital revolution over modern technology's influence on younger generations, with experts combating each other over whether the internet is dulling or expanding young minds. This debate is not restricted to education, but extends to cover issues of morality and perspectives. Education issues are tied to lacking cultural awareness and political activism, but world-views are a separate and altogether more severe problem for the next generation. As the internet becomes more embedded in our lives, youth are retreating into the isolation of private social bubbles and turning reality into a remote abstract concept. Apathetic, amoral and disconnected youth in the western world are spreading to replace the active socially charged older generations.

    Read More

  • Importance of Bridging the Digital Divide

    2662 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mark Prensky (2001) has coined the phrase Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants. To put it simply, Digital Natives (DN) have always had the new technology (cell phones, video games, digital music, computers) while Digital Immigrants (DI) have come into these things later on in life and have had to learn “it” above and beyond the old ways they had of doing things. Is there a difference? Children today are born into a digital world and use technology from a young age. The Digital Natives/Learner finds technol...

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Social Software

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    Technology is changing how we think and act at younger ages. The term “technology” doesn’t only mean manufacturing processes and equipment necessary for production, it also defines a social space and could be a social problem which makes a real impact on social reality. Different types of social software affect a variety of aspects and have both positive and negative impacts. It's important to be aware of how a digitally-driven life is changing our education, sense of self, relationships, social interaction, consumerism, and ways of doing business around the world.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects of Technology

    2086 Words  | 5 Pages

    Technology is one of life’s most impressive and incredible phenomena’s. The main reason being the shockingly high degree to which our society uses technology in our everyday lives. It occupies every single realm, affecting people both positively and negatively. There are so many different forms of technology but the two most often used are cell phones, and the internet/computers in general. Today’s younger generation was raised alongside technological development. Kids now a days learn how to operate computers and cell phones at a very early age, whether it be through their own technological possessions, a friend’s, or their parents. They grow up knowing how easily accessible technology is, and the endless amount of ways in which it can be used. This paper will be largely focused on the effects of technology on the younger generation because your childhood is when these effects have the largest impact. I am very aware of the subject because I am the younger generation. Aside from major effects on study and communication skills, there also exist the media’s effects on teen’s self-esteem and mental health. Maybe more importantly, there is our world’s growing problem of over priced and unnecessary consumerism. Over time, our society has created a very unhealthy form of reliance and dependency on technology as a whole. People essentially live through their devices. Cell phones are always with people making it nearly impossible to not be able to reach someone at anytime, day or night. In 2011, there were 2.4 trillion text messages sent, and 28,641 cell phone towers were added across the US. 1 We use our phones and Internet for directions, communication, information, self-diagnosis, games, movies, music, schoolwork, work, photos, shoppi...

    Read More

More about The Sociological Approach to Digital Natives in Gasser and Palfrey's Born Digital

Open Document