Are you a digital native? Or a digital immigrant? Then again, are you answering the right question? The digital natives and digital immigrants framework, coined by Marc Prensky, proposes that people who are born into technology (digital natives) have a knack for technology, since they grew up speaking that language. Meanwhile, people who learn technology later in life (digital immigrants) can learn new technology, but treat it more like a second language, rather than their primary language. This framework leads to the notion that younger people must be tech wizards, since they (presumably) grew up with smartphones. Meanwhile, older people are often assumed to be tech illiterate. This assumption never sat right with me, since it doesn't center the many other variables impacting tech literacy, such as tech access (having the tools) and tech education (learning how to use those tools).
It was refreshing to discover a new framework for tech literacy: Visitors and Residents. Instead of focusing on inherent technological competence (age assumptions), this framework emphasizes cultivating technological resourcefulness (how a person of any age chooses to use technology). Coined by David White, this framework puts technology use on two spectrums. The first spectrum is professional (institutional) on one end, personal on the other. The second spectrum is visitor on one end, resident on the other. While using technology as a visitor, technology is used as a tool for a task. By using technology as a resident, technology is used as a bridge for community. Visitors use technology as a means to an end. Residents use digital spaces for connecting with other people and other people's ideas. For more information, check out David White's brief video introducing this topic.
In order to learn how I navigate this technological space, I created a digital map for my technology tools. Although this list isn't exhaustive, I included the technology tools that I currently use on a consistent basis. I wasn't surprised by which technology tools fell on my map; however, I was intrigued by where they fell on my map.
For personal use, I found it fascinating to see the stark contrast between personal visitor use and personal resident use. Personal visitor use was so crowded that it felt claustrophobic. Many apps and websites in this sector are designed primarily as a means to an end, rather than a way to connect. For example, I use Hoopla and cloudLibrary for the task of checking out e-audiobooks and e-comics. It is not a space, but a service. Odds are, it will stay that way.
Other apps, however, have the potential for shifting toward the resident end of the spectrum, depending on how the technology is used. For example, I use YouTube solely for enjoying content. However, YouTube is also a social platform. Users can comment on others' content, make their own content, and build an audience (i.e. a digital community). In other words, I have untapped potential to shift from visitor toward residency. This potential is shaped by the goals of the person using a given technology. For example, musicians may more likely use Spotify as residents, building digital communities around their music. As a non-musician, I use Spotify to explore new music passively (personal visitor), rather than promoting music of my own (professional) or actively connecting with others (resident). That said, I can shift ever so slightly toward resident by sharing my S Tier Soundtracks playlist, connecting with others and building a digital space in this very blog.
In contrast, Facebook and Discord are platforms I use specifically to connect with others. They are digital communal spaces, not digital individualistic tools. It's not about listening or watching something; it's about connecting with someone. I didn't always use Facebook to connect. I used to just lurk, abandoning my profile for weeks at a time. However, Facebook turned out to be an excellent platform for creating events in my local pride group. I promote the events in the pride group's Facebook page. I add friends on Facebook who attend these events, then invite them to future events. I have conversations by messaging directly and commenting on posts. In other words, I build and partake in digital spaces and digital communities. Discord also lends itself well to digital communities. I've joined Discord servers that support my identities, roles, and connections (pride groups, writers groups, friend groups, etc.) Discord has proved to be a fantastic way to message, voice call, and video call, providing multimedia options for connection and creating unique digital spaces in each server.
After making my digital map, I asked myself, Why only two resident apps? Why not add Insta, Snapchat, and more? After reflecting on my ghost town (i.e. personal resident sector), I realized that I'm moderating my technology use - for valid reasons, I'd attest. As someone who is neurodivergent, it can be incredibly easy to get burnt out on communicating, particularly when it comes to communicating with new people. Even having two dating apps at the same time (or one app, for that matter) had led to increased anxiety.
In addition to social apps leading to burnout, burnout from other things can affect my use of social apps. During my classes last semester, I had less capacity for other commitments that required brain power. Hence, I dropped an app called Boo - an app designed to meet new friends and/or dates. Fitting, that I ghosted an app with a ghost as a logo. However, I didn't go off the grid entirely. I knew it would be important to maintain existing social connections, so I wouldn't become isolated with only my homework to keep me company. Hence, my use of Facebook and Discord remained consistent. I find it interesting that Facebook and Discord are designed to make new connections and maintain existing connections, while other apps (like dating apps) are primarily designed to make new personal connections. Having said that, a friend of mine used a dating app for professional use, promoting their clinic's LGBTQ+ health services on an LGBTQ+ dating app.
I wouldn't personally use a dating app to blur work life and personal life. In fact, there isn't much overlap on my digital map between the technologies I use professionally and personally. Outlook is for work. Gmail is for home. I would never, not in a million years, use Outlook for my personal email, because it would immediately remind me of work emails through sheer association. Notably, there are the following exceptions to the boundary between "work tech" and "home tech".
- Google Calendar tracks my entire schedule in one location, including my work schedule.
- Zoom is primarily used for work, but I'd used Zoom during quarantine for connecting with friends.
- Bibliocommons is my library's catalog. Since I work at this library, I look up books for patrons and make booklists. At home, I look up books for my own reading enjoyment.
- Google Search is a technology tool for any and all uses, so it sits squarely in the middle of my digital map - a compass to any question at any place and any time.
Another boundary blur between "work tech" and "home tech" involves the theoretical application of a work tech tool to my home life. You may ask, what do you mean by theoretical application?
Let's talk about Desk Tracker. Desk Tracker allows libraries to track their reference desk interactions for different categories. For example, if I help a patron register for summer reading, I can click the All Things Summer Reading category, then click "Submit". As another example, a dad asked for picture books on divorce, to help his daughter process that her parents were going through a divorce. I documented the interaction under Reader's Advisory & Reference. Each night, the librarians pull a Desk Tracker report to summarize that day's reference desk interactions. Ironically, Desk Tracker is all about documenting interactions, without facilitating any interactions, landing the software firmly in the Visitor category.
Desk Tracker is designed for libraries, not for personal use. Nonetheless, I wonder what it would be like to track my personal interactions, professionalizing the minute details of daily human life. Which categories would I include? Which types of interactions are so frequent that they'd merit their own categories? I could include extremely specific options, like Bug the Roommate. I also could include umbrella categories, like Adulting - for grocery trips, phone calls to the doctor, and other adult responsibilities. Then again, perhaps it's for the best to keep my digital map as is, separating the professional from the personal. Otherwise, I just might read the nightly report of my life, all too aware of how many times I talk to my pet snake, in the same baby talk manner one might speak to a human infant.
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