Author | Marcos MartínezAlthough we refer to them as if they were a radically new phenomenon, there have already been various generations of youngsters who were born surrounded by the technology offered by screens and hyper-connection. They know how to interact with these elements and they have no need for user manuals, therefore, we assume they are “digital natives”. Nothing could be further from the truth.The truth is that this is a group of citizens who, despite their immersion, have serious flaws in their relationship with new technologies. This could cause serious problems as we head towards a permanently connected world and defined by big data.
“Digital native” is a misleading term
The book ‘There’s no such thing as digital natives’, written by leading experts in the technology sector, is rather critical with this category of the population. Not because it does not clearly or accurately define the reality, rather because given its formulation, it releases key agents in technological development from their responsibility. Afterall, if youngsters are “digital natives”, then they do not to be shown how to ethically use their devices.Genís Roca, one of the authors of the book, establishes a parallelism between the young people of today and the youngsters of the past, stating that “it is absurd to refer to digital natives, just as it would have been absurd to refer to farming natives or electronic natives”.Think about a child born in the countryside during the 18th century. A safe relationship with farming tools (some of which are rather sharp) would be provided and transmitted by the family. In another example, a youngster in 1980 did not need to understand the electronics behind his Walkman in order to use it.However, the concept has stemmed from others such as millennials, centennials and alphas, generations that are thought to have a healthy interaction with technology, when this is not really the case. In fact, the new generations have less knowledge about technology than their parents. The digital gap seems to extend in both directions.Digital natives are really users
There is an enormous difference between using technology and understanding it. As Enrique Dans states in the abovementioned book, “technology is not in the genes, nor the common sense to use it”. Nuria Oliver, holder of a PhD from the Media Lab at MIT, sustains that “the new generations […] know less than their parents”, which makes them unsuspecting users.In 2016, Roxana Morduchowicz, specialising in youth culture and author of the book ‘Kids and screens’ (2014) published the study ‘How much do kids know about technology?’ in collaboration with Microsoft. It illustrates how seven out of ten youngsters believe they are experts in technology, although 60% do not even know what programming is.The same percentage claimed not to know how a computer works, and the results regarding their interaction (30% uses the trial and error method as a basic tool for problem solving), are not very promising. When youngsters come across a digital obstacle, only 40% of them analyses what could happening and 30% make no attempt whatsoever. However, these are the people adults turn to for help.Adults turn to their children

Digital illiterates, connected without connection
