FWIW, Tim Berners Lee wasn't a "digital native" and he understood the web well enough to invent it.
Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
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Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#62I'm in my mid-30s, grew up tinkering/programming/etc., but I have to admit I just don't get social media. But then I'm not a very sociable person in general. My wife (not a techie), however, is all over facebook/pinterest/twitter/etc. doing God knows what while I'm coding all day. How I learned of the existence of Pinterest: Me: "Where did you say you posted that thing?" Wife (annoyed): "Pinterest" "Your what?" "Pint…
Part of that is just gender.
Pinterest is aimed almost exclusively at women. You haven't heard of it because you're a dude and it's not marketed to you or your friends.
Hell, I'm enough of a tomboy that I don't really use it. I looked at it a year and a half ago when I first started transitioning to female because I heard that girls are supposed to like it, and I never got into it because it was all about fashion and shit that I have no interest in.
(OK, I did start getting into it in the last week or so... but I've mostly kept to the '80s/'90s nostalgia boards, which seems to be a much smaller part of the community than the fashion boards.)
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#63I didn't use that specific term because it sounds as stupid as "rockstar" or "ninja", but when I was hiring recently I only used Facebook ads (which you could target to specific genders or ages, if you wanted - I only targeted by location) and stressed that the job(s) required someone comfortable with the Internet, social media, and Internet culture (which, indeed, they do). I only got applications from people in the…
I'm sure you feel good about the people you hired, but how do you know that there wasn't someone even better who didn't apply because of the narrow targeting of your ad? If somebody posted their job ad only in the AARP newsletter, would you feel that it had been made available to twenty-somethings? After all, they could read it.
If part of the job requirement was being very familiar with AARP, the AARP newsletter would probably be a great place to post the ad.
Right?
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's interesting! I would have predicted that "digital natives" would be the most likely to use ad blockers (thus not seeing the ads at all)...
No, people who use ad blockers are cranky old idealists who demand tiresome, expensive relics like "privacy" and "dignity." Digital Natives™, having never lived in a world with those things, don't cause trouble over them.
Even if I didn't care about privacy (I do), I just hate those freaking auto-playing flash ads.
Everyone can appreciate how annoying they are.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The technology doesn't matter From Wikipedia "Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks." (Someone added "Web 2.0" later there but it's immaterial. Well, HN lets you vote without refreshing the page, I guess that's "Web 2.0") The content is driven by users, either by creating (FB, Twitter) and/or…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ("A bulletin board system, or BBS, is a computer server running custom software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through email, public message boards, and sometimes…
I'd argue that the BBS is the earliest form of social media (or one of the earliest, at least).
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The technology doesn't matter From Wikipedia "Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks." (Someone added "Web 2.0" later there but it's immaterial. Well, HN lets you vote without refreshing the page, I guess that's "Web 2.0") The content is driven by users, either by creating (FB, Twitter) and/or…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ("A bulletin board system, or BBS, is a computer server running custom software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through email, public message boards, and sometimes…
I know what a BBS is, I used them
(I'd say HN is not one, since we don't use a terminal program to access it and not using a modem over POTS)
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Change "Unlikely" to "Cannot" and that sounds about right. You cannot become native in something after the critical period is over, no matter how good you are(this is by definition). The best you can be is "fluent" if you miss the critical period. For example, if you ask for a native English speaker to write a newsletter, Joseph Conrad would not fit the bill(since he started learning English at 21 years of age), even…
You're claiming there is a skill set or intuitive understanding that can't be learned once you pass age 21?
I think the point that the parent post is making is that while one can learn to be proficient in a certain topic, he/she can't call it "native" unless it is in fact, "native" in definition.
It's as much as you can't claim native to a specific country if you are not born/raised in that country.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#68Even though I'm a millenial guy myself but one of those pioneers of the generation - no not a 90s kid - and I still feel that younger folks than me are at advantage compared to us we slightly older folks when it comes to technology.
I have not taken computers seriously till 2000 and the internet not before 2005 (The broadband revolution took some time to enter my country of origin) and as we might all know, the web back then was more or less pathetic thanks to MSIE monopoly and the resulting stagnation.
So, I didn't take web development seriously back then and I waited for the thing to explode and rise meteorically before jumping the bandwagon and therefore I'm kind of behind the curve when it staying updated of all the ongoing developments in the field compared to my younger peers who are more "digital native" to these technologies than me and therefore less suitable for "young" jobs in startups or orgs.
I think we should accept that our field favors young talents like pro sports and athletics and everyone of us has a "shelf life" in a certain role in the organization and that he/she should strive to move the higher rank in managerial or lead position as soon as possible before getting displaced by younger talents who are fresh, ambitious, eager to learn and achieve and have high exposure to all the new "fancy" and "shiny" technologies that the market demands at the time.
Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#69Re: Is It OK for Employers to Seek Out ‘Digital Natives’?
#70Is it OK for Employers to seek out employee they want? Yes, their business, their decision.
Is it OK for employers to discriminate based on criteria that the applicant can't reasonably change through education or training, like race or gender? Is that the same as discriminating based on age? Is 'digital native' HR-code for discriminating based on age?
Could 'digital native' be used for discrimination? Sure.
Is it inherently or obviously used that way? No, not likely.
As to the first question, yeah, in many cases it's okay to discriminate based on factors out of the control of applicants. Many disabilities, for instance, will preclude you from many jobs.