Many people feel that if you were born after the year 1990 you are part of a new tech-savvy generation. After all, we grew up with computers in the classroom. We learned how to make PowerPoints in elementary school. What other evidence is needed? All young people must be familiar with all that technology has to offer.
However, this could not be further from the truth. Being tech-savvy has nothing to do with what year you were born. Often it has much more to do with what class and demographics you are apart of. People assume that ALL young people are tech savvy but in reality many are not. Many young people do not have the means to be considered tech savvy. Not all people below twenty-five years old own a laptop computer. They don’t all have Smartphones, IPods and Internet connections. Of course there are the group that have amazing technological skills but that is far from the majority.
For example, since we are so tech savvy, shouldn’t we know how to create a website. Seems easy enough with the help of a site that generates your own web page and you simply add some information about yourself (such as Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook). However, if those formats were not there for you would you be able to create it from scratch. Probably not. It is unlikely you know how to code text using HTML.
This supposed existence of a digital generation has made it tougher on everyone. People are competing in the job market based on the amount of media literacy they have. Even young people are discouraged because it means more computer and technology classes they must take in order to keep up.
This technological generation is also only focused on the United States. Young people in less developed countries certainly do not have access to such technology. How can we assume that ALL young people are digital natives if we do not include the rest of the world?