The terms ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ were first coined by Marc Prensky. The former applies to anyone born after the invention of the iPod. The latter applies to the rest of us. Younger users are deemed to be completely fluent in speaking digital, while the rest of us speak haltingly, and with a heavy accent. While these stereotypes have become fixed in our collective consciousness and offer an easy way out when over-50s can’t be bothered learning how to programme the video recorder, they have no basis in fact.
