What does a visitor means? How about a resident?
Dictionary.com has the answer!
A visitor represents a person who visits, as for reasons of friendship, business, duty,travel, or the like.
A resident represents a person who stays in a place.
So, what about a digital ‘visitor’ and a digital ‘resident’?
David White feels that a digital ‘visitor’ is one who sees the web as an tool to do their necessary research, just to get things done. They do not feel that there is a need for social media and in turn, find the social media a time waster. They are those who do not have a belonging ‘online’ and would prefer to do their thinking ‘offline’. They prefer to keep to themselves and likes to privatise their lives.
A digital ‘resident’ is one who see the web as a place where their family, friends and colleagues gather together to discuss about their lives. They live out a proportion of their lives online where they have a sense of belonging to a community through the various platforms of social networking. They are those who are pretty comfortable in expressing their identity online.
There might be researches that states that there is a growing trend in the younger generation who are glued onto the web to either play games or visit the social media sites whereas the older generations like to do something more meaningful like doing some sports to keep fit or watching a movie.
In contrary, David White’s concept do not directly place people into one category. Some can be digital ‘visitors’ at times and at other times, they could be more of a digital ‘resident’, vice versa.
As a ‘resident’, I would be refreshing my news feeds on the social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and with this module, WordPress whenever possible, most notably, on the train or together with my friends. I am also a ‘visitor’, with me searching for interesting topics for my own interest and as soon as I am done with the search, I may not visit the site again.
All in all, everyone is a digital ‘visitor’, as well as a digital ‘resident’, irregardless of age. It is just like travelling where one can be visiting a place of interest or currently residing at that place. In my opinion, I think David White’s concept was a good read, together with the other references given to us.
White, D. and Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).
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Hi Aet!!
I thought this is an exceptionally well written blog post that has left me feeling very envious. I think the way that you have explained the theories made them so accessible and is indeed the best asset here. Carrying out the duty of ours to spread the message about web presence and understanding while we are on this course.
You have pointed out that your online behavior, such as refreshing news feeds on the social networking platforms whenever possible makes you a “resident”. In your opinion, what do you think can be said for those users that only refresh their new feeds for viewing purposes but do not actively contribute in expressing their opinions and share their life even though they are using the social media platforms. Doesn’t this means that their digital identity is still pretty well hidden?
Could one still be labelled as a “resident” if he or she doesn’t share yet remains as an active user on the platform for entertainment purposes (e.g. people who watch youtube video without commenting)
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Hey Tor,
Thank you for spending time to read my post and appreciating it!
In reference to your question, I would think that those users that only refresh their new feeds for viewing purposes but do not actively contribute in expressing their opinions and share their life even though they are using the social media platforms are in between digital visitors and digital residents.
Why did I say that they are in between? They follow both traits that both carries.
The digital visitors are those who go on a site for a purpose. In this case, their purpose is to ‘stalk’ or better said as visiting a site for understanding their friends’ lifestyle. And in the midst of doing so, they follow some traits of digital residents where they are constantly on social media, but not to the extreme ends of commenting on YouTube or updating their Facebook/Twitter/Instagram feeds.
I hope this clears up your doubts!
Cheers!
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