What’s the best way to deliver your message?
Derived from: Iggy Pintado; Connection Generation
Before the internet, we just had life. Then we had to distinguish between being online and offline. Nowadays with smart phones and 24/7 internet access where ever… there’s not really an on or an off. Now we’re all inline. And, that means it’s all about using the most effective tool to connect, online or off. There’s no one best way…
This is a crucial distinction for using Social Media.
Digital Natives are those born in the past 20 years who don’t know a world without mobile phones, email and the internet.
Digital Immigrants are older than that. They’ve had to migrate to the web, email and mobile phones. And, like an immigrant to a new country they bring some of the former culture, language and habits with them. And, as you might expect, the way they respond to social media and the like is not as fluent as those natives who know no other world.
For those not regularly on the internet and on social media, they live in the offline world. These people are living in the old non-digital world.
For those digital immigrants they may talk about the online and offline worlds because to them there is a difference. Some of these people have easily adapted to social media, others haven’t.
Where these people may struggle is they are likely to go home to do social media on their computers. That’s like taking home school work, ie homework. These people are most likely to complain: Where do you get the time for Twitter, Facebook and the like?
In contrast, a digital native is likely to use whatever tool that is at hand – typically a smart phone.
If you asked this group where they find the time for social media, they’ll probably scrunch up their eyebrows and say ‘Huh?’
The simple reason is they’re inline. There is no online or offline world for them. It’s just one digital world.
