Digital Neighbourhoods: A sociological perspective on the forming of self-feeling online

Net Cultures And Digital Natives

The Internet and digital media have become increasingly embedded in our daily lives. One central notion within the framework of net based activities is ‘net cultures’ (Dunkels, 2007, 2009). It can be argued that ‘net cultures’ is a notion difficult to define due to its volatility. It can also be said that the inherent complexity of the concept depicts a distinction between net cultures and everyday cultures. Buckingham (1999) argues net cultures concern different fields or domains which are not limited to the area of Internet exclusively. The term net cultures have also been used as a tool (Tapscott, 1998) abandoning the demarcation between the net and the everyday life. Tapscott argues net cultures as a kind of cultural interaction which is displayed on the Internet. The approach of cultural interaction also makes the Internet a wider field of exploration embracing the contexts of learning, development and socialisation (ibid.).

The concepts of the ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ were first introduced by Prensky (2001). Digital natives can be described as the generation that has grown up in the digital society being considered natives since they are fluent speakers of the digital language. In contrast ‘digital immigrants’ is a concept that refers to users who do not have a native understanding of the Internet and the digital world (ibid.). Digital immigrants are therefore forced to grasp knowledge about information and communication technologies to keep up with the developments of the technological field.