I met someone recently who had never heard of Linux. And a second who hadn’t come across Wikipedia. Wiki-what? Nope, no idea. The experience got me thinking. Were they troglodytes, or am I a geek?
A lot of noise has been made about “the digital society”, this place where all “content” – music, photos, writing, TV, even phone calls and correspondence – is reduced to 1s and 0s, and where the universal access key is some form of networked computer. It’s not hot air, either. I would agree that the world really has been turned upside down in the last ten years; this is genuinely a kind of second industrial revolution, which – as Thomas Friedman puts it – is flattening the planet.
So where does that leave us with the geek-troglodyte conundrum? Someone once wrote an article about Digital natives, digital immigrants. Apparently, people can be divided into two groups: those who are viscerally at ease with digital technology, and those who are incorrigibly analog but trying their best. Normally it’s a simple generation thing – but obviously not always, because one of my two prospective troglodytes was somewhat younger than me.
I suppose the scientific answer is that technophobia reduces the stock of digital natives while geekery boosts it. But perhaps that is presumptious of me: maybe there’s something even I, as a relative geek, don’t understand about what kids are doing with YouTube.
In any case, and just for the record, here’s my personal balance sheet.
Digital toys:
- first computer – 1993 (Cambridge Z88 – don’t ask)
- first internet connection – 1997 (0.033 Mbps)
- first mobile phone – 1999 (a hopelessly cool Motorola StarTAC)
- first digital camera – 1999 (1.5 megapixels!)
- first broadband internet connection – 2003 (0.640 Mbps… getting there)
- first camera phone – 2006
- first DVD player – never (so suburban)
Digital modes of communication:
- first email – 1997
- first instant message – 1997
- first text message – 1999
- first online phone call – never (why perpetuate an outdated medium?)
Miscellaneous acts of digital citizenship:
- first online forum post – 1997
- first personal website – 1998
- first online purchase – 1998 (a book on Amazon)
- first online date – 1998 (mind your own business)
- first online sale – 2002 (CDs on eBay)
- first Wikipedia edit – 2003
- first domain registration – 2006
- first YouTube upload – never (no immediate need to be famous)
► A study of citizen journalism