Alaina Baker
COMP 106-007
Anne-Marie Yerks
October 7, 2008

Let me start off by saying that I do not believe in generations. There is no true definition that will make me believe that we all can be categorized by the progress made in our society purely because we may have been alive when it happened. Just because certain events and inventions have come to be during my life span doesn’t mean that I wish to associate with it. People give birth and people die everyday. With these two event being non-stop it is impossible to group people and call them a generation. Even if you did, then you would have to consider people to be apart of numerous generations or define generations by an exact amount of time.
In an article written by Siva Vaidhyanathan it is mentioned that people of my age group are referred to as digital natives by the author of Print Is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age. When talking about “digital natives” I also do not believe there is such a thing. Unless you were born in cyber space (which can not happen) there is no way you can consider yourself a native. Being native implies belonging to a person by birth or to a thing by nature, and I am pretty sure that on the day you were born you could not type one-hundred words a minute nor did the doctors pull you out of your computers mother board.
Technology is a funny thing that is constantly changing. You learn and understand all of the ways it can be used over time. Computers, phones, cameras, and Mp3 players are so widely available today that almost everyone in America has access to these devices. Knowing this should make it even harder for one to put only you people into a digitally adept category. In Vaidhyanathans article he not only argues that digitally adept people are young but that they also tend to be in descending order of importance: socio-economically privileged, English-speaking, white, and male.
This order of importance is completely out of line in my eyes. If I had read this article years ago when computers first hit the scene I may had believed it, but now the tables have greatly turned. Being privileged so to speak implies only that you have the money to buy your own computer. There is free access to computers all over any community. You could walk into any library, any college campus, or even your place of employment and have access to a computer. I am sure that there are a multitude of people who do not own a computer but know just as well how to use one as the next person.
Even putting English-speaking in this order is completely outrageous. People all across the world use computers. Japan, Australia, and many parts of Europe are all on the same level of the numbers of computers used as the U.S. Also on that note, not everyone who lives in the U.S. speaks English. Vaidhyanathan may have a good argument else wise but saying that the ability to speak English is a factor in being digitally adept is too far fetched.
This also ties into Vaidhyanathan including being white. The U.S. is such a melting pot of different cultures that is continually expanding. People from all over the world are constantly coming to the states making new lives in our society. Not a single one of my courses here at The University of Michigan Dearborn consist of all white people.
Finally we come to the last topic in Vaidhyanathans roughly printed order of importance of being male. I could not think of anymore of a perfect example than myself. Yes I am young, but I am also a female. I use a computer everyday, my cell phone is always close, I am savvy with a digital camera and my iPod is always in my bag. Many of my other female friends older and younger also demonstrate these digitally adept behaviors. Being a male does not imply that you are technologically advanced as a human.
I agree with Vaidhyanathan in many topics about generations and many of the authors he quotes. However placing this order of importance on people who are so called “digital natives” in my opinion does not make sense. I do not wish to be seen as a digital native because there many other people in the world who are so much more knowledgeable and experienced to me. I will agree that I was raised in a world that is constantly growing and expanding but that is all.