Digital natives "are people who've grown up with technology. Creating whole new lives and languages for themselves. They are here to stay and they're not going back," noted Gartner Analyst (and digital immigrant) Jennifer Beck, introducing today's closing keynote session. "You and I as digital immigrants dominate the IT industry. That is changing forever."

Beck interviewed three digital natives - UPenn student Andrew Metcalf, 21, Angela Ngo, 22, a student at UC Berkeley and Derek Ashlong, a 32-year-old social media entrepreneur and musician - each of whom had a unique take on technology's role on their lives.

The funny thing about the term "digital native," noted Beck, is that they don't identify with that term. Rather, they are so accustomed to technology that is not even thought about. "We found these utilities to achieve the things we needed to do on our own," Ngo said, talking about her experiences in founding the Berkeley Project. "Nobody told us how to do this."

Do they have any favorite company? "Apple knows how to tap into the end users," said Ngo.

"It's about picking and choosing what's useful to me," said Metcalf.

"I use a lot of Apple technology," said Ashlong.

Submit a Comment | Permalink