Variations in Internet Use
For current internet use, age has been considered a predominant factor in the successful engagement. There are terms like “digital natives” or “net generations” to define young people who grew up in the development of internet and have been immersed in the environment of rich media years. The early intervention of internet makes these young people better using electronic devices and interacting with social media. Due to this situation, proper guide of digital literacy and skills is necessary to younger generation while they access to internet. First, it can help them efficiently learn how to adapt developing media world actively. Second, it can protect them from being harmed by internet. Bullying and fake news are two common negative forms of the internet, and especially for younger generations, they need a safe online environment.
After reading the article from White & Le Cornu, the points of Visitors and Residents really impressed me. The author indicates that visitors and residents are continuum, instead of binary opposition. It means that sometimes visitors are not less technically adept than the residents. I think that visitors can also manipulate the ability and skills towards hardware and software, and they just view internet as place, which doesn’t mean their lack of necessary capacity. Similarly, residents also have to adapt new platforms if they try to switch. Therefore, in most time, people may perform between visitors and residents. The mode we interact with internet is not easy to define.
For me, I would like the metaphor “net generation” to explain my online engagement. I started to touch on internet and social media since I was 9 years old. I played online games on web with my sister, and I liked to see how she chatted with her friends through QQ, a famous platform developed by Tencent. Then I had my account of QQ when I was 11, and many of my classmates started communicating online. The next significant step for me to learn the variety use of internet is development of online shopping- Alibaba. Overall, I believed that youngsters like me can be counted as natives to internet, until I find how my 9-year-old little brother use internet. Children born in such times grow up with different electronic devices, and they can touch these stuff when they start speaking or walking. Such immersive environment of digital world makes me think the two sides of early intervention of internet.
