View source for Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives

'''Born Digital; Understanding the first generation of digital natives. written by  John Palfrey and Urs Gasser in 2008'''<br>
[http://borndigitalbook.com/ http://borndigitalbook.com/]


'''Moderators:'''

* [[User:Renee Oldemonnikhof|Renee Olde monnikhof]]
* [[User:Tolga Ozuygur|Tolga Ozuygur]]

'''Keywords:''' 
* Digital Natives
* Digital Immigrants
* Transformation
* Identity
* Privacy/ safety
* Future
* Crossroads
* Control


'''Summary of key points raised in the text:'''<br>
This text focuses on 'digital natives'. These are people who were born after 1980 and all have access to networked digital technologies and understand how they work. It is clear that the world is changing and that the new generation is allot different than any generations that came before. Kids today read blogs rather than newspapers, meet each other online before meeting in person, use google or wikipedia to collect information rather than go to the library. Almost all aspects of there lives, such as social interactions, friendships, civic activities are mediated by digital technologies. This is the most rapid period of technological transformation ever, at least when it comes to information. Digital technology has become so accessible and helpful that almost everyone is using it, for example business men, politicians and even in the religious sector people are using the internet to reach out to their followers by writing weblogs. There are however also dangers that come with this new digital age. Many 'digital natives' do not make a distinction between there online life opposed to there offline life. Instead of thinking of their digital identity and their real-space identity as separate things, they just have an identity (with representations in two, or three, or more different spaces). Privacy has become an issue, and it is clear that the ideas of privacy to these 'digital natives' are very different than those of their parents and grandparents. We are now at a crossroads and there are two possible paths we can take, either we make smart choices and head toward a bright future in digital age, or we destroy what is great about the internet and about how people use it. The biggest obstacle that we face is fear, and this fear is being fed by the media. The purpose of this book is to separate what we need to worry about from what is not so scary, what we ought to resist from what we ought to embrace. 



'''Discussion Notes & Afterthoughts:'''
* Are newspapers disappearing? 
* Do we really have control over our cultural environment?
* Control in general
* Are newspapers, magazines and books able to make the transition?
* How can we take away the fear? is it possible?
* Not making a distinction between online and offline identity.