I'm going to be 52 years old in July of this year but I consider myself a digital native. I don't like hearing that phrase thrown around as if it's an age-dependent term. I didn't grow up with the Internet yet I've adopted it as if I had. In fact, if anything, my maturity gives me an added perspective. I do note, with exasperation, how poorly some of my generation have adapted to these technologies. I don't seem to quite understand how they don't get it. I obviously believe that digital rules!
For example, I am the middle of watching, Where Angles Fear to Tread (1991) on Netflix while typing this. I was not raised with the nearly infinite selection of options available today. In fact, if a movie wasn't in the theatre, the only way to see it would have been on one of the three US broadcast networks. Until I was in college there was no such thing as video tape. Now, I no longer need to schedule my time to match a showing. In the mid-1990s I never thought video via the Internet could surpass the tiny 160 x 120 pixel, RealAudio files.
See, I may not fit the definition of a digital native, but I don't have to be in order to enjoy an on-demand selection of what's available to me at the moment. I think there are over 11,000 shows available on Netflix right now. If I add hulu.com and the networks, my digitial television has never had such a selection of possibilities.
