This live blog will be based on one of my sources for my research paper, titled, “Closer Together or Further Apart? Digital Devices and the New Generation Gap”
7:59 PM-Robert Weiss gives an anecdote of a three generation family sitting down together for dinner. The grandparents become frustrated that their grandchildren are on their phones even before the menu was distributed, while the parents are unaffected.
8:04 PM- “different generations divided by different definitions of personal respect, attentiveness, interpersonal communication and what constitutes a meaningful relationship.” This quote focuses on the separations between generations due to what is meaningful for the divided generations.
8:06 PM-“Digitally natives unquestioningly value and appreciate the role that digital technology plays in their lives, whereas digital immigrants hold mixed views on the subject.” This quote is interesting because it brings up the idea that the digitally natives are comfortable with technology while digital immigrants are not yet as comfortable, but the fact that they can be thought of as “immigrants” suggests a possible shift in their views.
8:10 PM- Weiss brings up several differences between digital natives and digital immigrants. These include, the way both conduct business, gather news and information, define personal privacy, experience entertainment, and socially engage. The main factor I want to focus on is gathering news and information because it has been argued that elderly, or digital immigrants, are not necessarily up to date on many issues that digitally natives are able to be informed about through their use of online research.
8:14 PM- He mentions that previous generation gaps in history were mainly concerned with “young people vocally, visually and in-real-time challenging the beliefs and experiences of their elders” but now the divide “is more about the fact that young people neither see nor hear their elders because, from a communications standpoint, the two generations are not in the same room.” It is interesting the way he then explains what the “same room” is, while one room is the realistic life of the elders, the other, is a digital universe in which digital natives are constantly a part of. This includes their use of social networks, communicating with others digitally as they are already in a room with real people.
8:20 PM-Generation Y and Z are considered the most interconnected generations, backed up by statistics where “more than half of American teens logged on to a social media site at least once per day, and nearly a quarter logged on 10 or more times per day.”
8:22 PM- Weiss brings up an interesting question, “Is it possible that human interactions are no less meaningful or productive simply because they are digital rather than face-to-face?” In many instances this can be possible, but in other cases many elders will continue to prefer face-to-face contact.
8:25 PM- Weiss mentions his book, “Closer Together, Further Apart” which I plan to look into. He notes in it that through his research he has found that those who are willing to evolve with the new means of communicate are those who communicate the best. Those who are able to integrate any means of communication and not stick to a specific gateway of communication. “As technology evolves, so do good communicators, and they do so without forgetting or discounting what has worked in the past, remaining constantly aware of the fact that some people may prefer the older methodology, while others prefer the new.”
8:29 PM- Because it is difficult for most to integrate a variety of ways to communicate, especially for the digitally natives, there is a “current communications-driven generation gap.”
Robert Weiss’s article really gave me some insight into the generation gap that I am trying to discuss. At first, I was unsure of exactly what was driving there to be a separation between generations, by reading this article it was eye-opening that the disconnection is directly correlated to the means of communication between digital natives and digital immigrants. After reading this, I plan to looks further into the communications area of generations. How the communication has evolved, and ultimately what the reasons are for both groups to not evolve together in their means of communication. I assume it may boil down to overall access. Since the digital immigrants are moving towards a digital lifestyle due to that being one of the few options they have in order to stay connected, it will come down to their access to the technology they need. But this access will be physical tangibility and ultimate understanding of use.