Plug-in and Live: Voices from the Digital Natives

Plug-in and Live: Voices from the Digital Natives is a collection of essays, written, edited and complied by seven extraordinary college students who share a glimpse of what it is like to be a Digital Native in the United States. Coined by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser in 2008, the phrase Digital Native refers to the generation of young adults in the US for whom computers, cell phones and computer-mediated communication are so familiar that they are unremarkable. This group is the first generation to have grown up primarily within the information revolution, and perhaps on the edges of a new network society. Guided by Dr. Alecea Standlee, the students confronted the issue of being a Digital Native in the Sociology course Digital Culture and Social Behavior in the fall of 2012 at Concord University, a small liberal arts institution. The students elected to speak to the world in the form of this ebook, not as academic experts but rather as digital natives. The work that the students in the course produced gives readers a snapshot of the technologically and socially complex world of the contemporary college student. The students produced work that touched on four broad areas. First, they provide essays that discusses the historical or cultural context of digital culture. Next the contributors focus on the norms, trends and expectation of gaming and video game culture. Then they provide a series of thoughtful essays on social media, specifically Facebook. Finally, the authors consider their own relationship with technology. Dr. Standlee compiled these students essays in order to provide readers a glimpse into the techno world of the modern college student.