TODAYS YOUTH AND THE MEDIA
The youth today are very savvy with current technology and the Internet. I believe they can do a lot of things that older personas can’t do. I’m not saying that older people won’t be able to do certain things younger people can do like teenagers and young adults as they can learn. There were some things that I had no idea about like how to work certain features on Instagram and apps that help you manage your Instagram account. It is true that adults don’t really have that skill set like younger folk with regard to knowing what’s hot out. In the reading Literacy, are Today’s Youth Digital Natives the author said, “From this perspective, teens are “digital natives,” and adults, supposedly less knowledgeable about technology and less capable of developing these skills, are “digital immigrants.” (Boyd, Pg. 176) I agree with this. I believe that teens are “digital natives” and we are “digital immigrants.” Today’s youth totally understand all things Internet and computers. Teens thrive on social media and so do adults but that world is more of an oasis for teens and young adults than anything. Therefore, they know the latest fads with technology and the latest apps and the digital immigrants find out about things much later and half the time don’t know what to do with the latest gadgets. For example, I brought an apple watch and had my son show me all the cool things. Yes, I can google and find out but I knew to go straight to my son who showed me quickly what I could do as he is a “digital native.”
Now on the flip side I also agree that even though teens know the latest techies they are not that bright when it comes to things like watching for viruses while navigating the Internet. They don’t care nothing about things like that which is important. The author in the article said, “I also met teens who couldn’t recognize spam” or they “don’t know the difference between a web browser and the Internet.” (Boyd Pg. 177) These issues are mostly true. However, an older person, “Immigrants” can get nervous still of your children navigating online with predators and if they know how to handle themselves. The article talks about how teens need to learn about media and computers which is accurate. If you pay attention to most youth when they use computers their knowledge a lot of times is pretty basic. In the article it was stated, “Few teens have a basic understanding of how the computer systems they use every day work.” (Boyd Pg. 182) This is because they only have light functions which is writing for school, researching for school work and surfing the net and even with that is elementary. So, it’s cool to be a “digital native” but I think it’s even cooler to be “digital immigrant” because the latter have more knowledge which goes a long way than knowing how to work the latest apps.
