We Were All Once Analogue… Natives, Immigrants, and the Emergence of Homo Digitalis. The Fiction of a New Species

Abstract

The conceptual distinction between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” has become, over the past two decades, a common explanatory framework in analyzing generational attitudes toward technology. Initially proposed by Marc Prensky, this dichotomy has been widely adopted in educational and social contexts, despite its tendency to oversimplify the actual behaviors of users. These labels suggest an artificial segmentation, rooted more in cultural assumptions than in robust empirical criteria. By attributing a “native competence” to younger individuals and assuming a structural difficulty among adults, the discourse risks reducing complex realities and overlooking relevant factors such as individual exposure, motivation, learning processes, and social context. Subsequent alternatives, such as the typologies proposed by Zur and Walker (2015), highlight the need for more flexible interpretative models that reflect the diversity of attitudes and ways of engaging with the digital universe. Instead of a chronological and hierarchical interpretive grid, a more nuanced approach is gradually emerging, one that values individual experiences, everyday practices, and the incremental processes of technological integration. In this light, differences in digital competence are no longer treated as biological or generational givens, but as outcomes of educational and cultural dynamics. This reconfiguration allows for a more realistic and contextualized understanding of how individuals interact with digital technology in contemporary society.