What does Born Digital mean?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The term "born digital" is something that we often use at Undercurrent; this is how I define it.
Born Digital is a term we use to describe an exploding segment of society that is defined by a symbiotic relationship to digital technology. Born Digitals are the people who are constantly relying on the internet and mobile devices to access information, to communicate with each other, to entertain themselves, to organize social action, and to document their lives. They are also powering everything that the internet has to offer by constantly contributing their ideas, opinions, and knowledge to the network. As recently as a few years ago this segment was assumed to be a subset of the youth demographic; now, however, we see that it is quickly permeating all ages of the general population. Born Digital no longer describes a native familiarity with digital technology, but rather a common behavior and mindset in which digital technology plays a pervasive and integrated role in our day-to-day living.
Born Digital is a term we use to describe an exploding segment of society that is defined by a symbiotic relationship to digital technology. Born Digitals are the people who are constantly relying on the internet and mobile devices to access information, to communicate with each other, to entertain themselves, to organize social action, and to document their lives. They are also powering everything that the internet has to offer by constantly contributing their ideas, opinions, and knowledge to the network. As recently as a few years ago this segment was assumed to be a subset of the youth demographic; now, however, we see that it is quickly permeating all ages of the general population. Born Digital no longer describes a native familiarity with digital technology, but rather a common behavior and mindset in which digital technology plays a pervasive and integrated role in our day-to-day living.
2 Comments:
Mike, great post. Brands need to realize that kids and teens are not the only people fluent in digital technologies...and in many cases, not the first to adopt them. What percentage of the population do you suppose is "Born Digital" today?
Also appreciate the nod to mobile...we can no longer treat mobile as an emerging technology. If you're still talking about it that way, you're history.
c
My kids are "Born Digital" Mike.
Especially the youngest.
They don't see the difference between screens- it's all the same to them and they watch TV as often online as they do on the TV.
TV is time-shifted and downloaded- the notion of "here's what's on now" is pretty alien to them.
Movies automatically have web adjuncts. As do TV shows. (Conversely, web sites have movies and TV shows.)
They don't get the notion of "we can't connect here" Why not? Where's the iPhone? Where's the Blackberry? How could we be unconnected.
The rest of us can understand this stuff and interpret and rely on it, but it's our second language: we're not natives.
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