Conversation Starter: Digital Natives Moving Offline

Ivan Boothe posted a link to this story recently on the Progressive Exchange list. It’s been a busy week so I just clicked through today and thought it was an excellent opportunity to start integrating more conversation starters into this blog (as suggested in the Blog Redesign thread).

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The article from Spiegel Online International begins:

They may have been dubbed the “Internet generation,” but young people are more interested in their real-world friends than Facebook. New research shows that the majority of children and teenagers are not the Web-savvy digital natives of legend. In fact, many of them don’t even know how to google properly. (Read the full story here.)

It goes on to examine a few ideas and theories about the next generation and their relationship with the Internet. But, before I jump into just what I think, I’d like to open the floor (or the comments as it were) to you!

And, if reading the article isn’t enough to get you talking, here are some conversation starters:

• Has your organization made strategic decisions or marketing with the expectation that youth are online and plugged in?
• What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned about approaching any age demographic, be it young people or not, with online content?
• Where are you on the Internet-dependent scale? 🙂