Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and David Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.
Technology has become an integral part of existence it has surpassed functionality and transformed into mode of socializing for the common person. It moves at exponential speeds and has not slowed down since its invention in the 1950's. It has been the subject of endless debate from sociologists and societal commentators alike. David Weinberger and Marc Prensky are two such commentators. They have both compiled their comments and observations on recent online behaviors and trends and although they both present different views of new media and its consumers they are still both accurate in their portrayals. Prensky and Weinberger both raise very valid points and in comparison it is evident that they have different ideas regarding the virtual world and its effects on society and the way people socialize.
Marc Pensky is, according to his website: "an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning" (http://www.marcprensky.com/experience/Prensky-Bio.pdf). He is responsible for his piece "Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native". He talks about how young people or ‘Digital Natives’ have changed their behavior in accordance with the technologies available to them. He identifies that all the elements of a digital native's virtual life are connected. “All the various elements of the Natives’ digital life are closely related. Chat, for example, plays a big role in games” (http://www.hfmboces.org/HFMDistrictServices/TechYES/PrenskyDigitalNatives.pdf). Digital natives are connected with each other with the use of link lists on personal blogs. Prensky maintains that this function is a way that digital native stay in touch with each other. He says: “important feature of blogs are lists of links to other blogs that the writer enjoys, so they serve as a form of interconnection”. When the internet first arrived people were sent into panic at the thought about how it was affecting people’s sociality. In the late 1990’s 4000 families in Pittsburg were given a home computer and internet access and their behaviors were studied. After two year time period all of the members of the survey were questioned and their mental state assessed and they found, “a reliable but small increase in reported depression and loneliness as a function of the amount of internet use” (http://delivery.acm.org) .However in later studies this was disproven and it was found that “greater internet use was associated with positive psychological and social outcomes.” (http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf) This is exactly what Prensky is saying the internet allows young people to do. He marvels at the way digital natives are interconnected through their use of chat, IM, online games and sms text. He reports no negative impact on the socialization of young people. Through the panic and numerous reports Prensky has presented a confident internet with little worries about its’ affects on them in the long run. He discounts dangers like online predators saying that digital natives have found a way to rise above the danger. Much like David Weinberger, he does not present a negative picture of the modern internet user rather, a different one.
David Weinberger is the writer of Small Pieces Loosely Joined in which he engages with idea of this virtual world within the first chapter of his book. The first chapter titled "A New World" deals with very similar issues as Prensky. He talks about how all people, not just the young, relate and use the internet. He delves even deeper and discusses the dangers or perhaps the points of confusion that comes with this new virtual world. A Journal written by Ann Forsyth refers to the virtual world as: “a system of which reality itself (that is, peoples symbolic/material existence) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a virtual image setting, in a world of make believe in which appearances are not just on the screen through which communication is mediated but they become the experience.” (http://jpe.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/19/2/211) Weinberger makes a comment that while although internet users are experiencing people they could never have dream of, they are also: “we're meeting new aspects of ourselves” which is allowing internet users to put themselves fully on the internet through their blogs and live journals and this is the experience of the internet. Moreover, he discusses in great detail how people translate into the virtual world. He explains that the core of social norms is having a line between what is private and what is not, “much of our sociality depends upon drawing the line between our private and our public lives” (http://books.google.com.au/books?id) But enter the internet and these lines are blurred if not taken away entirely. This is where all the confusion starts and perhaps the beliefs that the core of human socialization is crumbling because internet users are losing the ability to distinguish between public and private information. Which as Weinberger has indicated is what human sociality depends on. Weinberger presents the image of a cautious internet user, rather than the confident one that Prensky presents.
Prensky and Weinberger, both celebrated thinkers and writers have both written about their thoughts and observations about the online world and between reading the two authors various differences can be recognized but so can some similarities. Weinberger in his book discusses the idea of social interaction, as does Prensky however they deal with them in very different ways. Prensky praises the way Digital Natives are using the technology around them to engage in an activity once preserved for face to face meetings and letters. He says: “email is the natives reflective form of communicating” (http://slo.sbcc.edu/wp-content/uploads/prensky-the_emerging_online_lif.pdf ), which is a far cry from the days of writing letters. For a long time researchers seemed very reluctant to accept the internet as a meaningful way of communicating. However, experts are turning around and starting to see that digital natives are perhaps more social than the previous generations because they are constantly communicating with someone through different means on the internet. Prenksy mentions young people who have numerous “chat windows” open simultaneously and how parents marvel at their ability to take part in all of the conversations at once. Weinberger talks about how people are social over the internet and a young person’s ability to communicate with numerous people at once relates to this sociality concept. Prensky mentions Mimi Ito who is an anthropologist studying new media use (http://www.itofisher.com/mito/about/bio.html). She recently finished a study with a MacArthur Foundation called Digital Youth. It was all about youth’s behavior online and how they use technology in their everyday lives. She found, much like Prensky, that young people were using the internet to navigate familiar relationships rather than escape from them. (http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-TwoPageSummary.pdf). Everything Prenksy talks about, from the creating of a player’s own worlds in games and chatting to twenty people at once demonstrate a confident internet user. Whereas Weinberger, with his talk of warnings and past incidents of people getting into trouble for using the internet in the wrong way indicate a less than confident internet user. He presents the kind of user that is typical to older generations, who is unaware of wide world web norms and acceptable behaviors.
According to the experiences of many young people with the internet, the most accurate picture of the young internet user is the one painted by Marc Prensky. Weinberger seems to represent an older generation who are unnecessarily cautious of how people should act while online. He worries about whether or not people will know where to draw the line in real life. He wonders about whether or not the internet is helping or hindering socialization of young and old people. Prensky bothers with no such debate; rather he explains why technology is making young people socialize in ways unimaginable years ago. Yes, the old ways of communicating like the letter or telegraphs are not used anymore but only because there is more efficient and easier ways to communicate. New communication technologies do not detract from the art of communicating. Both authors illustrate this in their debate of whether or not technology makes people less social with each other. Weinberger presents a cautious internet user while Prensky presents a confident and eager internet user. Prensky’s version of internet users is more accurate within a youth demographic. However within an older generation Weinberger’s presentation of the internet user is more accurate.
Works Consulted:
1. Bargh, J etal (2004) The Internet and Social Life: Annual Review of Psychology, New York University Press: New York
2. Forsyth, A (1999) The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Journal of Planning Education and Research: Harvard University Press
3. Kraut, R etal (1996) HomeNet: A Feild Trial of Residential Internet Services, Carnegie Mellon University Press
4. Ito, M ( 2006) Biography, Mimi Ito online, available online from:
5. Mizuko, I etal (2008) Summary of Findings of the Digital Youth Project, Digital Media, available online from:
6. Prensky, M (2002) Emerging Online life of Digital Natives, Marc Prensky Online, available from
7. Prensky, M (2009) Biography Games 2 Train Online available from:
8. Unknown (2009) When the Internet was Invented, Tech FAQ online available from:
9. Weinberger, D (2002) Small Pieces Loosley Joined: a Unified Theory of the Web, Da Capo Press Inc: USA
10. Weinberger, D (2009) David Weinberger online: Biography, Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, available from:
