Technology: The Great Divide

I was talking to my older brother yesterday and he admitted to me that he used Word for the very first time yesterday. I cringed and was shocked with disbelief. I've been slowly turning my family to the "dark side", the side that uses technology, but it was a real shock that my brother who is only 2 years older than I am was so far behind!

My brother is a farmer and doesn't use a computer for work. In fact, he got his first computer this year and his first e-mail address. We didn't have a computer in our home until after my brother had graduated from high school, so he didn't really have an opportunity to work on one at home.

We went on to compare our lives with technology. When I was a 9th grader I took keyboarding, on a computer. When my brother took keyboarding in 9th grade (2 years before me), he did it on a typewriter. I asked him how he typed his papers and he told me that he had used Appleworks. I then remembered that the year after he had graduated, my high school got its first IBM lab.

It amazed me that with just two years difference it had really been that different. I believe that there is a divide in technology. People talk about the digital natives and the digital immigrants. We state that digital natives are those people who grow up with technology as an every day part of their lives. Therefore I have never classified myself as a digital native. Technology became part of my life around the age of 15. I've always thought of myself as a digital immigrant because I have prepared myself to use technology. But perhaps there is a different line. A line that is drawn somewhere between the years 1994 and 1992. A fine line it must be. Are those people on "my side" of the line those adults ready to take on the challenges of today's technology? Are they the ones ready to teach it, embrace what's new? Are they are present day technology leaders?

What about those people on "my brother's side"? Where are they? Many of those people became technology leaders despite the lack of use. How did the people on "his side" become technology leaders? How did they come to embrace and embed technology into their lives? Is there really a divide or is it just a choice a person makes to either be on one side or the other?