“Virtual” does not mean “Unreal” anymore!

Today one of my students made an intriguing comment about how wrong the interaction through social media is perceived by those who are trapped in the old-gone paradigm. We were discussing the impact of new media on children. While the presenter was showing a slide about the negative impact of new media on children, a statement taken from an article of a columnist appeared on the board. It said: Today, children spend too much time online hence they become asocial beings who do not spend enough time with their friends anymore. The protest was as follows: “It is incredibly wrong. I get so frustrated when people suggest that social media is making children asocial. They are more social then our parents ever were.”

He is absolutely correct. There is a discrepancy between how reality is perceived and lived by digital natives and those who are immigrants in the digital world (in other words “us”). Digital natives experience their online presence more vividly and they can hardly differentiate the nature of online and offline interaction. In their world, online and offline has always been intertwined. Hence, online interaction is a need for them to keep up with their peers. Their sense of community is totally different and in some cases the reach of their social ties goes far beyond the imagination of their parents. Online channels are important for them to engage in social exchanges with their community and these exchanges are crucial for the development of their social character that suits the nature of this new world. It is time for us to grasp the fact that digital natives live in a completely different paradigm, which has a brand new set of norms and social practices. In this new paradigm, “Virtual” does not mean “Unreal” anymore!

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