Jason McNee's List: Digital Natives

• Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained?
• • Broad overview explaining what it is to be digitally integrated in today's modern world.  Reinforcing what it means to be 'digitally literate'.
• Many of these "digital natives," who have hardly known a world in which they weren't connected 24/7, confess to having increasingly limited attention spans that make it difficult for them to read books or learn in conventional ways. "Honestly, I can't sit somewhere for two hours straight and focus on anything," says a student named Alex. "Maybe it's some technology dependence I've developed over the course of the years, but at this point I don't think I can go back to just focusing on one thing."
• • First hand accounts of the 'multi-tasking' mindset of today's Digital Natives.
    
• Beyond school, Digital Nation explores the phenomenon of multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft and 3-D virtual worlds like Second Life -- online destinations with millions of participants. Last summer, Rushkoff and Dretzin traveled to BlizzCon, a giant party Blizzard Entertainment throws every year for its fans. Many of the people they spoke to there had never met, but considered each other close friends. "We've all spent hundreds of hours together," one gamer tells FRONTLINE. "My traditional-style friends who I have outside the game, none of them do I spend 16 hours a week with, week in and week out. I mean, I've known some of these folks for years."
• • Digital Native example of how many people are now literally 'growing up' online.
    

4 more annotations...

• • Even though there are some negatives overtones associated with this report, it offers very conclusive evidence of the shifts in information access, retention, and social change.