electronic communication, analog versus digital. Is the split a big deal? Does it make a difference how we communicate? The answers to these questions are, not surprisingly, both yes and no. Had Uncle Brad been unwilling or unable to communicate via text he would have missed out on an incredibly powerful conversation with his niece. On the other hand, if he hadn’t been willing to show up in person, he would have missed out on some wonderful moments with his parents. For him, the method of communication doesn’t matter much. “I prefer face-to-face,” he says, “but there are definitely times when texting is faster and easier.” For his parents, though, and also for his niece Kris, talking versus texting does matter.
Ultimately, the most successful communicators among us are able and willing to engage others utilizing whatever media is most useful at the time, while recognizing the most appropriate circumstance for each method. They neither avoid nor insist on a particular mode of interaction. Instead, they work hard to make sure their message is heard by whomever they’re trying to reach. They assimilate. According to educator Timothy VanSlyke, “cultural assimilation rarely entails a wholesale abandonment of previous customs or practices; rather, it typically involves a flexible process of negotiation and adaptation, wherein certain elements of both cultures are retained in a new combination with one another.”24 In other words, the most successful communicators today accept and even embrace the idea that they need to live in and communicate fluently in both the digital native and digital immigrant worlds. They evolve with technology.
Unfortunately, for those entrenched in the idea that “the way it has always been is the best way,” this kind of cultural assimilation is not an easy task, and therefore it feels easier to judge and avoid than embrace. This may be why the current digital native–immigrant generation gap is not as volatile as previous generation gaps, such as the openly acrimonious split between the baby boomers and their parents in the 1960s and 1970s. And it may well be that the roots of what currently appears to be a relatively serene generational divide lies in the fact that older and younger generations don’t even know what their differences are since they’re rarely sharing ideas in the same space! Perhaps we lack proper discourse because digital natives and digital immigrants aren’t “in the same room,” thereby avoiding vociferous disagreement yet sacrificing mutual understanding.
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