Technology and the Mind

In the article "The Brain, The Senses” Mark Prensky analyses generations that grew up with technology and those who have had to adapt to it. The first generation he identifies is the Digital Natives.

Digital natives is the generation that thrives on computer games, texting and their interaction with this technology makes them process the information differently. In the article, Mark even goes into detail about how the brain in the Digital Natives might not be only different through thoughts but by through physical structure.

The Digital Immigrants are the generation that did not grow up with technology in their hands and as they interact with technology they always keep a fragment of their past. Mark Presnky gave the example that a Digital Immigrant might look up information the old fashioned way before he or she turns to the internet for the answer or they might bring people into a room to share information instead of sending them the link.

With technology changing the way the younger generations think, the Digital Immigrants feel like there is a loss of learning. Digital Natives prefer their graphics before their text” explains Prensky, or they just multi-task instead of focusing on one specific job. The Digital Immigrants see the new generation as a decline in society because they don’t learn the way the Digital Immigrants were taught to learn and because of that they believe their children are not learning at all. Children now a days learn through games and TV, Digital natives don’t have not developed the right parts of their brain to learn this way so they unappreciated it. In the article, “Introduction: Communication Meanings and Social Purposes” Greg Downey  agrees that generations are straying away from one on one interactions by choosing to “surf” the web, or “google” whatever their minds can think off backing up the idea that Digital Immigrants have a hard time grasping the fact that society itself is changing.

In the introduction Mark Bauerlein states that society is changing as a whole, so when Prensky introduces the comparison of both generations it is clear that those changes are being misunderstood by people as un-appreciation or lack of concentration.