I am a digital tour guide in a land of digital tourists.
Digital native and digital immigrant are two labels we continue to assign to people based on generation. Their meanings rely on a division according to age in which one is a person who has grown up with digital technology and the other is the adopter of digital technology.
By simply dividing along generational lines, we ignore what it means to be truly immersed in a culture and to grasp the potential of the digital lifestyle.
These definitions propel the myth that digital natives are of a younger generation who instinctively get the web and that they have superior skills or greater interaction with the web than those of us who did not grow up with the web.
But we’ve all grown along with the web, and our most sophisticated digital leaders are not in their teens but rather in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, 24
Google: Lawrence Page & Sergey Brin, 36
Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales, 42
Microsoft: Bill Gates, 53
—Mark Weber, slide 21
I call myself what my clients are searching for, “social media consultant” and “online strategist.” And I help those who want to understand the online world and how they can live and participate within that world. I am their digital tour guide. I show my clients the “sites,” I explain the culture, I tour them around. I explain to them how to live in a digital world. But when the session is done, they have a choice. They might return home. They might have notes and souvenirs that they place on their mantles. They might integrate some small part of what I’ve shown them into their daily lives. Or, ideally, they gain a stronger perspective on their role as a digital creators and consumers.
By including themselves in this world, each becomes a digital immigrant, which I see as one who embraces the culture, lives the digital lifestyle, and is immersed in it. There is no return to the previous state. In my mind, the connotations of digital immigrant are positive.
I do, however, agree with Mark Weber, who suggests it is better to look at categorization according to engagement levels. He explains in his presentation, “Fear and Awe of the Digital Native,” that digital natives and digital immigrants are artificial categorizations that ignore the fact that across all age groups we have digital originators, those who grasp the creative potential of digital technology and are actively involved in digital production, and digital consumers, those who are reactive consumers of digital productions.
Being one does not exclude being the other. I see it as a spectrum rather than two end points.
As for the digital tour guide, neither definition pinpoints how I perceive my role. Perhaps Nancy White, Etienne Wenger and John Smith come closest with the term technology steward.
Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community.
—Learning Alliances
In order to be a good digital tour guide, you must have an understanding of digital culture, digital origination and digital consumption; and you must be in a position to help others understand the workings of the digital community.
I am a digital tour guide.
