The REAL Difference Between Millennials and Digital Natives | Also Why We Should Care
Our society always battles with the phrase of today and today the battle is between “Millennials” and “Digital Natives”. Prior to this period, the battle was between “Baby Boomers” (Better known as Generation Y) and Millennials (Better known as Generation X). As time progressed, generation X was superior due to the fact that they grew up during the emergence of the internet. Thus, essentially giving them the upper hand in overall culture. Although it was clear before, this is a bit more difficult to decipher.
Both Millennials and Digital natives grew up during the emergence of the internet. Unfortunately, after looking deeper into it, this time it may actually matter for our survival. Let’s explore the differences then find out why.
What Is A Millennial?
A millennial is an individual or group that reached adulthood in the early 21st century and identifies themselves as such. According to a report by Pew Research center, a millennial was born between the years of 1981 and 1996. Obviously, there is no direct way to come to that conclusion, but without nitpicking it kind of makes sense.
Rapid technological growth has a major influence on this period. Millennials are the only generation to live their prime through the transition of the internet, cell phones, computers, dial up to broadband and more. If you are old enough to understand what life was like during that period, you can safely conclude that most of it doesn’t exist anymore. The people born after 1996 have no idea what a Beeper, VCR, Walkman or Typewriter is. Maybe they know the show Full House or Saved By The Bell, but I doubt it. Clearly I’m a millennial writing this article!
What Is A Digital Native?
A Digital Native is a group of people that grew up during the full compliance of the digital world and use it as their primary resource for their day to day lives. The opposite would be considered a Digital Immigrant, whom were born prior to this period.
The term was created by Marc Prensky in 2001 to highlight issues in education. They simply don’t speak the same language nor use the same methods to solve problems. For example, long division may not be as relevant in math while concepts in day to day problem solving are. Both have been exposed to different versions and both were/are taught differently.
Like stated above, millennials and digital natives both grew up in the internet/digital age but the difference resides inside psychology. Many millennials are discouraged to be labeled as one but it may be important for them to embrace it. They withhold important knowledge of the pre-digital world that digital natives need. Prensky’s main argument is that it favors the more fortunate. The less fortunate people don’t have access to advanced technology and could be left behind.
Let’s also take a more granular look at stereotypes of digital natives. An interesting report by the Nielson Norman Group determined these following myths about Digital Natives:
MYTH 1: “Digital natives possess inferior social skills or are more likely to avoid personal interaction in favor of digital interaction.”
MYTH 2: “Digital natives are much better at multitasking than digital immigrants.”
MYTH 3: “Digital natives have natural instincts about how to use or fix computers and other digital products.”
Obviously, these are labeled as myths because there is not enough data to call it scientifically proven. At least not yet. Regardless, if these myths are close to the truth or not, we should be acknowledging them. I mean, they seem pretty accurate to me.
OK! I hope you have a better understanding of the difference between these two terms. Now let’s discuss why you should even give a damn and what impact this may have on our future.
What Is Next For Millennials and Digital Natives?
In the last 30 years, technology has moved the needle in regards to our societies advancement much faster than we originally anticipated. With that said, these groups are starting to consolidate and so is their overall purpose. Together, they have the power to accomplish things such as racial and gender equality, world peace, and much more, which are issues prior to 50 years ago were almost impossible to overcome. Even though these topics matter, some may stick out amongst the rest.
Why Is This Important?
We are entering a vital time in our society in which we need to work together as much as possible. History has shown a reluctancy for different age/social groups to work together. Some may say it was a ploy to establish seniority, other say it was directly correlated towards controlling money, and in most cases for social gain. Due to the internet, the access to information is at a point we haven’t seen. Thus, making it possible for us all to have a voice and retain that knowledge from one another.
Serious issues with education, global warming, and economics may be the first topics to pay attention to. We can’t hide from it anymore. These Sci-Fi movies are starting to become real and the chance of a global economic crises even more so. If you haven’t taken a look at The Great Depression, I suggest you do so. It’s legitimately happen again in our lifetime. The generation after digital natives is already being discussed. But amongst other important issues, before we do that let’s make sure they can survive.
Both generations (Millennials & Digital Natives) have the technological understanding, psychological understanding, and health to carry out the regimes. Baby boomers may be too late for Noah’s Arc or quite frankly don’t really care.
Conclusion
These two generations are different but for the most part are very similar. The difference is in the experiences and education. Digital Natives may know the technological skillset to be more efficient but lack certain street smarts and the psychology behind problem solving and other facets of life.
It may be good or not but digital natives haven’t lived through the crises’ like WWII, 9/11, or the recession in 2008 to block their minds from certain outcomes. Meanwhile, millennials still have hiccups in their day to day because of those occurrences. Millennials may have that upper hand now but if they don’t catch up, Digital Natives will take over FAST. Should they work together or is that a good thing. What do you think?