Looking Back

I had a wonderful time reading through my classmates’ posts on Topic 1. All of them have their own interesting points to share, but there were a few notable ones that got me thinking, or rather, I couldn’t help but agree.

Sara mentioned that Prensky’s concept is flawed due to the age biases. It got me thinking if it takes a certain level of understanding of the use of technology for both the young and old generations is vital in searching for information.

The answer to that question is on Simon’s post on Motivation.

Eureka! Digital Visitor me searching for answers!

Simon stated that one must first understand the motivation behind why people use the web and for what purpose. It is all up the the person’s willingness to learn the technology that they need to achieve the goal that they want.

This brings back all that I have learnt in Human Resource Management. There is a need to understand one’s behaviour of using the web by understanding more than what Prensky mentioned of age.

Another blog that I have enjoyed reading is Vanessa’s one. She gave the example that, as marketers, it is our duty to be able to change digital visitors to digital residents. I fully agree with this idea of changing digital visitors to digital residents. Using her example of ASOS.com, it got me thinking how ASOS.com measures the amount of viewers of the sites are digital visitors or digital residents. Is it by measuring the number of sales? Or is it by seeing how many people saves clothing into their wish lists?

These are all debatable issues.

One thing that I could take away from this topic is that everyone falls into the two category of digital visitors and digital residents with some motivation spurring them to use the web.

Cheers!

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http://saradanlee.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/digital-visitor-vs-digital-resident/

http://wingslykeagles.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/topic-1-digital-residents-and-visitors/

http://vanessalisoton.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/topic-1-digital-residence-digital-visitors/

Permanent Resident & Citizen?! Visitor & Resident?! What?!

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.

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White, D. and Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).