Posted on by Stefan Schuppisser

Topic 1 in ONL 192 revolves around „online participation & digital literacies“. Most of the discussions I remember on this topic are regularly held using the catchwords „Digital Natives“ versus „Digital Immigrants“ (Prenski, 2001). Who belongs to which group depends on the age of the person. In the last two weeks I have realized that the behavioral concept of „Visitors“ and „Residents“ (White & Cornu, 2011; White & Cornu 2017) is much more useful for thinking about people’s engagement in the digital world. In this – my very first substantial – blog post I am applying it to myself.

A long, long time ago …

I am clearly a „digital immigrant“ by age, but since the advent of the Internet, I perceive myself as a very curious and experienced user in the online world. For example, I remember the excitement at our university institute in Switzerland when I first e-mailed a professor in New York in 1993 to coordinate my professor’s exchange semester at Columbia Business School. As a group we stood around the Apple Macintosh SE and almost couldn’t believe that we just typed messages into the computer and immediately received a reply – with attachments – from the Professor in New York. Finally, no more fax communication! A few days later I organized an introduction for all employees of the institute on the possibilities of using the Internet and presented applications such as the Mosaic browser or the Gopher search service – both precursors of Safari or Google. It is unbelievable what has happened in the last 26 years! 

Ambitious – but still a Visitor …

Reflecting on my developments on the Internet as a „Visitor“ or „Resident“ since then, I have to admit that, despite my considerable technological openness, I have always remained only a „Visitor“. I don’t use any of the popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. I don’t have an account, so I’m not even a „lurking“ user. Maybe WhatsApp is the only service I might slightly be using as a „resident“, namely as an „organizational instrument“ in my family and private environment. For example, we have a „family chat“, which makes coordination within the family much easier. Or a „friends chat“, which is supposed to simplify short-term and spontaneous meetings and helps to stay up-to-date by sharing some photos. 

More than in my private life, I am clearly developing professionally in the direction of „resident“. I am a big supporter of all collaborating services and platforms that help to bring together all people involved, to synchronously collaborate on documents, to give feedback in a simple way and to give everyone access to relevant documents. Whenever there is a joint project at my university, I for example try to get everyone on „Teams“ from Microsoft. There are often colleagues who find it too tedious to make the initial effort to familiarize themselves with the platform and the possibilities. Then I simply have to persist … 

I was wondering why I’m not more active in the online world with regard to the „Visitor-Resident“ continuum and why I don’t run a blog (oh my God, that’s what I’m doing right now …) or don’t publish articles on all interesting events and encounters in my professional life on LinkedIn? It probably has to do with the fact that I am still more comfortable defining my identity primarily through the real world and not the online world:

  • First of all it is – like for many „visitors“ – about data protection or the business model of the operators of free online platforms who constantly analyze the activities of the users and then try to make money through advertising. I would rather pay for the use of a platform when I get the assurance that my activities will not be used in this way. 
  • Another issue is that I shy away from managing my online presence. At every step towards „Resident“, I would have to think about how the information I reveal in a blog, for example, affects others and will eventually fall back on me. I appreciate direct interaction with others when it comes to exchanging ideas and opinions and don’t like to be categorized without having the chance to react. On the anonymous Internet, I would have to constantly think back and forth about how my posts could affect my online perception and what they mean for my online persona. If someone tries to calm me, saying: „You shouldn’t care about how others interpret your posts“, I wonder why I then should post or blog at all in the first place. I’m also a little afraid of the effort that goes along with an increased online presence as I would  have to react to questions or remarks from people who read my posts.  Do I want to invest this time? Should I really invest my time in posting blogs and connect to anonymous people or shouldn’t I rather invest this time in developing relationships to real people in the real world? I value relationships over mere connections.
  • Thirdly, the somewhat superficial kind of online exchange that takes place millions of times a day does not mean anything to me. I really wonder: What is the point of adding my comment on a LinkedIn post that has already been commented on by 300 people with a one-liner („Great post!“) . In my view such behavior on Linkedin signals a somewhat narcissistic tendency („I’m there too and I am important“). Actually, there are studies that establish a connection with social media use and narcissism https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170418094255.htm .

Spreading the news … ftf … ITRW

To close: In Topic 1 I learned a lot of new things. The most important take-away is that the behavior-oriented „Visitor-Resident“ concept enables a more differentiated analysis than the – merely age-related – distinction between „digital natives“ and „digital immigrants“. Foremost, it adds the central dimension of „identity“ to the so far dominant topics of access, skills and techniques into the discussion on online engagement. 

That is my key take-away message which I will spread further. However, as a „Visitor“ I will do it rather „face-to-face and in the real world“.

Literature:

A digital immigrant visiting the online world …