Neil Selwyn is Senior Lecturer at the multidisciplinary London Knowledge Lab part of the Institute of Education, where his work focuses on the sociology of technology. He is the author of 'Young people and their information needs in the context of the information society' Brussels, Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe/ European Agency for Youth Information and Counselling, published in 2007.
Digital natives have grown up with digital technology; they are immersed in it. Reading or watching TV is too slow and boring. The web is the next step in brain evolution (Homo zapiens with one finger always on the button). This is a seductive image, but how realistic is it?
The aim is to consider the realities of IT, not the potential. We need to consider what we really know about young people and IT. And we need to use that knowledge to help young people.
The concept of the digital native is highly persuasive particularly to policy makers. The key ideas are outlined (repeatedly) by Mark Prensky, Don Tapscott, and Mark Zuckerberg. Those born since 1980 have innate confidence with technology, all types of ICT are part of their being, and the digital landscape is all immersive.
This can lead to unrealistic expectations for young people, and for the institutions with which they interact, and the debate around the concept is highly polarised.
The positive view is that young people are empowered. They are autonomous creators and critics who can create alternative institutions and social structures bypassing traditional social controls. Youngsters can handle information differently; learning is scaffolded by technologies a million times more powerful than the human brain.
The negative view is that young people are disadvantaged by technology. The ICT universe is full of risk and danger, physical, emotional, and sexual - a more engrossing concern in the UK and USA than elsewhere. Andrew Keen believes we are creating a dumbed down generation. Tara Brabazon believes that students doing research are just repeating the first things they find on the Internet (instead of repeating their professors?). Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist, is afraid that children will lose their ability to empathise. A minor strand in all of this is that old friend, the idea of alienation: that self broadcasting has replaced listening.
What role can there be for adults and for institutions in this World 2.0? All are disempowered, they are digital immigrants not natives and they retain a characteristic accent. Even to talk about “the Internet” is part of a pre digital dialect. Digital technology is a means of escape beyond the grasp of the non-native.
Some argue that we need to redesign institutions, and remix the content. Others that we need to control access to the resources. But both these arguments are flawed. In ‘Young People and New Media’ Sonia Livingston argues this is another moral panic. Why should an essentialist view of these social phenomena be only applied to technology? The Web 2.0 agendas piled onto the museums, libraries and archives sector need careful assessment in view of the tensions between a demand led and a supply led web resource.
Reality is messier. Though 67% of people have web access, a seriously large minority of 33% don’t. This is digital exclusion writ large; the major correlate for creating or consuming web resources is the parental education level of the young people concerned. Class, and age cohort defines web use. Research shows that consumers vastly outnumber creators, and the creators may well be the old Web 1.0 creators in disguise. Club Penguin for children aged 6 – 14 is a wonderful resource, created by that digital dinosaur Disney!
The real fascination is with non-users. Dana Boyd from Microsoft Research New England found that large swathes of young people didn’t use networking sites. The non-users consisted of the disenfranchised (can’t) and the disaffected (won’t). For instance, sexual education websites have proved unpopular (and frequently blocked). The usual sources of information, for better or worse, are the family network (I can talk to my Nan about anything) and mates. Pew Internet and American Life project international found that hard to talk about topics were the least preferred for research online. Information and reassurance should never be confused.
Context is always the key to technology use. For some young people computers represent a resented dependency at school, some old people are too busy to bother themselves with computers.
What are the challenges and opportunities for us?
- We must provide access to digital resources in public institutions
- Access is both hardware and connectivity, and access must be sustainable
- We must provide support in the creation of content
- We must encourage young people to develop critical digital literacy.
- We must accept that one to one personalised support is needed to establish an overall level of skill.
- Adults need to manage young people’s experience and orchestrate it.
- We must retain focus on a formal framework – there are more continuities than discontinuities
- There are many agendas represented in the discourse, neo liberal attempts to remove government responsibility for education not least.
- Young people need adults and adult institutions more than ever.
