Digital Natives
Q: At what point does technology stop being “technology” and just become “this thing”?
A: When your kid is holding it.
Adults tend to treat technology with reverence, awe and downright silliness. Witness all the hullabaloo over the new iPhone 3G. Much of it has to do with rabid consumerism, the quest for status and conspicuous consumption, but most of the fervor is due to the sense of wonder and amazement the iPhone engenders in its users. The experience is so engaging most iPhone owners will never go back to using a mechanical phone ever again. Buttons and hinges are now icky, and seem so unnecessary.
But in the hands of a child, aside from whatever ambient parental and/or market driven consumer fanaticism, the iPhone is just this thing they can use to make calls, play games, text their friends and, listen to music on. It’s a container for the functionality they have come to expect from anything with a screen.
People have begun to call this generation of kids: Digital Natives. I don’t know how I feel about the term, but it points at something very real in our culture and raises some very interesting questions about the current and future states of technology, media, product & service design, and consumption.
I’ve been gone for a while; moved from the mountains to the city, started a new job, and had a beautiful baby girl!
But I’m back now and ready to explore, share and laugh at all that’s new, interesting and fun for kids in technology, media and design.
