Defining Digital Natives

From Wikipedia.....

A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones andMP3s. 

A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later.

In the widest sense, this can refer to people born from the late 1970s and beyond, as the Digital Age did begin at this time, but generally, the term focuses on those who grew up with 21st Century technology.

As Dr. Ofer Zur and Azzia Zur discuss (2009), not all digital immigrants are technologically inept; they fall into the categories of Avoiders, Reluctant Adpoters and Eager Adopters.

Avoiders may only have a land line, and no email account. 

Reluctant Adopters see that technology is necessary to their lives, but they don't have a knack for it and often don't like it.

Eager Adopters have enthusiasm and (sometimes) talent for technology that puts them close to on par with Digital Natives. 

Similarly, not all digital natives are excited about, like, or have a knack for technology. The terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant" refer to the time period in which someone was born, not their taste for technology and gadgets. There are digital natives that despise technology or aren't good at it.

Marc Prensky is acknowledged to have coined the term digital native in his work Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants published in 2001. In his seminal article, he assigns it to a new breed of student entering educational establishments. The term draws an analogy to a country's natives, for whom the local religion, language, and folkways are natural and indigenous, compared with immigrants to a country who often are expected to adapt and assimilate to their newly adopted home. Prensky refers to accents employed by digital immigrants, such as printing documents rather than commenting on screen or printing out emails to save in hard copy form. Digital immigrants are said to have a "thick accent" when operating in the digital world in distinctly pre-digital ways, for instance, calling someone on the telephone to ask if they have received a sent e-mail. A digital native might refer to their new "camera"; a digital immigrant might refer to their new "digital camera".