It's hard to write about the ebook. I've seen someone's Kindle and it was cool. I wanted one. But did I want one to read books on or because it's the newest coolest gadget out there?
I was recently in Texas, doing some school visits. The library coordinator there was so smart. So Smart. And she had a couple terms I'd never heard before. Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants.
We potatoes are all Digital Immigrants. We have migrated to the digital age, the age of computers and ebooks, after living several decades on the Earth with nothing even close to computers. I remember how cool VCR's were, and who the first family was in my town to get one.
On the other hand, my children are Digital Natives. My youngest was two when we first brought a computer into the house. Does she remember life without a computer? Doubtful. Her life has consisted of one technological revolution after another.
As a Digital Immigrant, I still fight it sometimes. I like buying pens and writing in a notebook. Notebooks are a lot harder to lose than digital files. I like curling up with a hot drink and my library book, eating my sandwich and getting crumbs all over it, which I quickly wipe away. I'm a messy reader, I admit. I'm not sure ebooks would be as forgiving to this Digital Immigrant as the real ones have been...
7 comments:
Hmmm, I like thinking of myself as a "digital immigrant." Thanks for introducing this term to us, Stephanie.
This is fascinating-- a Digital Immigrant and a Digital Native. It makes sense that as a Digital Immigrant I would long for the old country- the old recipes of notebooks, sketchbooks, pens and pencils. Well, as a parent, I will hope to hand down my favorite recipes to my children and grandchildren, who are indeed Digital Natives.
Yes, it makes you wonder what things, other than the typewriter, will become obsolete in our life time.
I very much like the term "digital immigrant" better than "confused old person who is afraid he is going to be left in the dust because he isn't on FaceBook and doesn't own a cell phone," even though sometimes I feel like the latter.
LOL!!
I used to rent a cell phone whenever I traveled (I didn't need one at home). Friends called me a "dinosaur" --substitute "digital immigrant." I work digitally, but my recreation is NOT digital. I don't like online games. Pleasure reading and digital devices don't seem compatible to me. I don't want to manipulate a screen for effects; I want my imagination to take over without the prescriptive prodding of a device.
In the time that lapsed from when I finished art school at Pratt (pre-digital times), to when I taught at Pratt (when all design and some illustration was done digitally), the head of the department moaned the serious deterioration of hand skills or craftsmanship. New work created traditionally lacked the care and finish present in earlier times. When I see visuals on a screen, I miss the tactile element that only a printed page can provide.
So some experience the interactivity of e-books as gain; I experience them as loss (the immigrant longing for the old country).
I am so with you on this one, Steph.
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