My daughter is 14 and lives on Facebook, my son is 12 and lives on his X box.
I exaggerate, but as kids who very rarely watch TV (The Simpsons, In Betweeners, Glee, Mock the Week the exception to the rule) and are otherwise online or on iPhones (or the phone) ...
For H800 this is my target audience
Some may call them 'Generation X' or is it 'Generation Y'?
For the purposes of this blog, I call them ... X and Y.
I ask them about if they can remember when they first used the Internet. I should know, I've been blogging about it for a decade. I'll go see.
'Stop going on about the Internet,' I get very quickly from my daughter.
My son is too busy teaching some German kid how to kill zombies. I ask him when the BAFTAs are on (he's hogged the TV). He points out that I can look it up on the Internet.
Then I think
Born in the early 60s. Had my Dad kept asking me about Colour Television and ITV, about the impact of commercials on my niave brain what would I have said?
The same thing.
TV was my reality.
The Internet is my chidlren's reality. Our connection glitches or slows down and we know about it.
I acknowledge the value of terms such as 'Digital Natives' and 'Generation X' just so long as they are seen for what they are - linguistic shorthand, indeed, linguistic necessity. We do this to offer some phrase or word for an entity, abstract or real, founded in fact, or in this case ... not. However, despite the number of exceptions regarding 'Digital Natives' (i.e. the several billion who worry more about food and water each day), lets say it is representative of those born into the Developed Worlds where a computer and an Internet connection are as likely as hot and cold running water.
Meanwhile, it now frustrates me if a book I have read or would like to read is not yet available as an e-Book
I have taken to the format and now look at most books around the house and can only think 'Second Hand Book' shop or 'Archive' as a curiosity for later generations.
I recall my English teacher Mr Aldridge suggesting there was something magical about a book, its binding, is pages and cover. He'd sniff it. I'd sniff it and sneeze.
No books, less chance for the House Dust Mite.
Frustration over the BAFTAs and my daughter pushes me away and Googles 'TV Listings.' I was lost in the pages of BAFTA.
The world is chaning fast, and only our generation can see it .. is there are name for us?
Too laters? or 'just in timers' rather than 'old timers?'