Am I a Resident Or a Visitor?

I really connected with David White’s perspective on the differences between the resident and visitor internet user. I believe it is a much better analysis of the differences between the two types of users than the previous natives vs. immigrants approach.

I am definitely more of a visitor than a resident. I am very adept at learning how to use the technology, but I must see the purpose of it—how it fits my needs. I don’t fear technology, and once I see the purpose of using it, I am happy to spend hours tinkering with it to become really good at using it. But it is hard to motivate me to do it when I don’t see a purpose behind it.

Twitter is a good example of this. I have tried out Twitter multiple times in the past to communicate with friends and I never really liked. I found communicating with them via text, phone, or email to be a more efficient way for me to communicate with them, so I abandoned Twitter and didn’t use it. Now that I am taking this course, I am seeing how Twitter can be a useful tool to gain additional information in my professional life. It can be a great way to find resources to assist me in my teaching career. So now that Twitter has a purpose, I am much more interested in mastering it.

Another point that White made about the visitor that resonated with me was the privacy aspect of it. For me, it was a little different than the way White explained privacy and the visitor. White believed that privacy for the visitor was important due to fears of identity theft. It is not the fear of identity theft that prevents me from actively engaging in social media, but more that I have become more introverted as I have become older.

When I was a high school and in college, I was a very extroverted. I thrived on social interactions and I would have loved Facebook and many of the other social media networks. I’m sure that I would have been heavily engaged in those sites if they had been available at that time. Now, I really enjoy my privacy and my quiet time. I’m not nearly as social as I used to be. I have other ways that I would like to spend my time rather than being social on the web. So, again, maybe it comes down to the use of these networks not fitting my needs. Until I see a purpose that fits my needs, I believe I am unlikely to use the different sites.