Have you shared a selfie with your bae using #TBT after you Netflix and Chilled?  If any of that sentence leaves you scratching your head, you’re probably not a digital native, but a digital immigrant.

When exploring neologisms of the digital age (a neologism itself), it’s helpful to start with the words created to describe the members of this new epoch.  In the era of digital technology, society is divided into two categories: digital natives and digital immigrants.  The first use of these terms dates to 1996 and the “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.”  Their use, however, became mainstream with Marc Prensky’s 2001 article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.”  In it, he describes digital natives as the children who were raised in what has become our digital, media-saturated world.   My children, born in the late 1990’s, are digital natives.  This term feels less like a generational designation and more like an evolutionary descriptor.  Prensky notes that the children who grew up during the digital explosion even think and process information differently, and therefore require a more digitally-rich learning environment.

As an adult who has had to learn and adopt digital technologies, I’m a digital immigrant.  And like other immigrants when entering a new society, digital immigrants need to learn the language.  The fast-paced nature of digital communication means that the new language is expanding faster than ever.  I have to say, some days I experience more of a learning curve than others.  I actually thought I was killing it.  Take the first sentence of this post.  I know that a selfie is a pic you take of yourself, with or without others in the photo.  I also know that bae is a term of endearment, usually referring to your boyfriend or girlfriend.  And as far as #TBT goes, I’ve shared pictures on social media as a “throw back to” the past.  I also enjoy bingewatching shows on Netflix.  So how, may I ask you, was I supposed to know that it would be inappropriate to ask my kids to come home and Netflix and chill with me.  SMH