The Coming Chasm: Digital Aliens vs Digital Natives

One of the questions I have been trying to work out for a while is why does it seem that the majority of users of social network services like Facebook and MySpace are under 25? The only exception seems to be LinkedIn, whose users are mostly in the technology industry. I'd heard the idea of digital natives (people who grew up with digital technology) but didn't know how important it was.

So, I have taken the UK national population statistics, which describe the number of people in each age group. For each age group I then estimated the percentage of the group that had access to digital technology when they were growing up. It is an increasing percentage over time, starting in the late 1970s. There were computers in schools in the late 1970s: I was very lucky because my school had one. They were exceptionally few and far between (ours was made by the inspired head of physics, Tony Compton). With the introduction of 'affordable' PCs such as the Apple II / PET / BBC Micro / IBM PC, there was an increase in the numbers of computers in schools in the early 1980s, with a further increase in the late 1980s, until UK government policy mandated computers in schools in the 1990s. Now we have computer suites in most schools, and children from from all but deprived backgrounds have access to a computer at home. The result is this graph.

Suddenly the split between the population under 24 and over 24 becomes very clear, and more importantly, we can see how it is derived from ICT in education and at home.

Conclusion

There are massive implications for all employers in general. Facility with communications is the defining characteristic, and this is likely to change the way in which we do business. The employers on Wall Street who have been banning access to Facebook, probably need to think again, because it may just replace the corporate email system.

Notes

• Each bar represents one agr group in the UK population. Percentages are % of the total UK population.
• The right hand side (the smiling faces) represents people who had access to information and computing technology (ICT) during and after school. The left hand side (the aliens) represents those who did not have access to ICT at school.
  
• This work is based on the UK, because the relevant data is published by UK National Statistics in Population Trends, No 128, Summer 2007, Table 1.4 at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/PopulationTrends128.pdf . It would be interesting to construct a similar graph for other countries.
• The slightly odd age group 60-64 is not a mistake, but is part of the underling UK population data set. It is due to a recent change to a common retirement age of 65 for men and women.