I will here reflect a little on myself as an individual in the digital age. I am not really what people tend to call a “digital native”, as I was born in the late 1970s, but I do have been accustomed to computers since childhood. I did use a Commodore-64 computer quite a lot as a kid, my mom was doing a lot of computer stuff at work (until even becoming a teacher in computer sciences) before the internet era and I even programmed a computer game by myself at about fourteen or fifteen years old (it was text-based, however). I have also a background as a very active social media user, who has grown more distant to that world in later years.
How David White (2014) describes different modes of using the internet, dividing them in the Visitor mode and the Resident mode, really made me see some things in a new perspective. I mean, I have been used to thinking of digital literacy or similar and I am aware that nearly everyone in today’s world is online in some sense or the other, but some times the way we use the internet is what differs.
In a lecture, the very same David White mentioned that lately, because of COVID, 90% of life has happened online (David White, personal communication, March 9th 2021). This highlights, I think, a difference in viewing things and in using the internet. I do use the internet on a daily basis and for a wide variety of things, but I still believe myself to be more of a “visitor” than a resident – and I am that by choice. However, while COVID has changed how I meet with friends, it has not moved it all online. I still prefer to speak to people face-to-face and I often find it tiresome to keep up conversations online. The change is mainly that I meet people one at a time and outside, for example going for a walk together, instead of meeting them at a café or a pub or at home. It actually feels I might spend even more time with people than normally!
White (2014) states that internet residency is leaving a social mark, while visiting is more like seeing it as a bunch of tools, for example for reading news, buying stuff or watching a movie. Well, for me the longest running social media has been Facebook. I used to post more stuff, but now I mostly use it as a convenient tool to check what upcoming events there are (and spreading news about events I am involved with), or just to keep in touch with friends (in other words I use the messenger, but mostly in order to meet said people later “in real life”, so to say). Apart from the messenger, I use it nowadays more as a tool than a social space. As White said in his lecture (White, personal communication, March 9th 2021), the question is not whether people use Facebook or Instagram, but how they use them.
Another social media platform I use actively is Instagram, but for me that is kind of different. Due to COVID and spending more time at home, I decided to evolve my skills at drawing, and in order to get my works out in the public and getting feedback on them, I created an Instagram account. I do however use it solely for art and no “personal” stuff is posted – except of course for the fact that art is very personal. In this case I do use it more like a resident, as I even kind of have an “artist persona” there. As this reminds of a “professional persona”, I would not see the account as very personal. I do have some works of art that clearly make statements, but I have often long thought about it before posting those. I do reply to comments about my drawings and occasionally leave comments on other people’s art. I try not to get involved in too lengthy conversation, as, again, I mostly don’t find chatting away online very fulfilling (and I am a person who used to love IRC back in the day!).
While I am something of a traditionalist and do not see all new technology automatically as a bliss, I do value the internet for things I do think it is good for and one of those things is definitely keeping in touch with people. But I want it to be a tool for that, just like mail or telephoning, not trying to replace real-life socializing with online socializing.
I hope however to get a few tips on how to use also these more resident-focused tools for teaching and learning, without having to be too involved on a personal level!
White, David [jiscnetskills]. 2014, March 10th. Visitors and Residents . YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI&feature=youtu.be
