- Title
- 'No they're not digital natives and they're not addicted': an essay critiquing contestable labels
- Creator
- Johnson, Nicola
- Date
- 2011
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/54446
- Identifier
- vital:6179
- Identifier
- ISSN:1930-014x
- Identifier
- https://fastcapitalism.uta.edu/8_2/Johnson8_2.html
- Abstract
- Reducing complexity is often our focus when we explain new phenomena. However when we label things in simplistic ways, we may be in fact causing harm, in fact performing symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1998) by using and promoting essences of the phenomena in question. This essay gives examples of these simplistic, inappropriate categories that essentialize people into inflexible boxes, and argues that labeling is a simplistic practice, which gives us (mis)certainty. To me, there is a need for nuanced understandings of phenomena versus reductionist suppositions. We need insight rather than generalizations and essentializations. Many (mis)assumptions are based on a lack of evidence. This short essay argues against the constant complexity reduction apparent in popular (and to a certain extent academic) discourse. It highlights the ‘good’ of a society shaped by and shaping the Internet. It draws together the two labels of digital natives and Internet addiction to provide examples of how symbolic violence is being inflicted.
- Relation
- Fast capitalism Vol. 8, no. 2 (2011), p. 1-5
- Rights
- Copyright author
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- 1303 Specialist Studies In Education
- Reviewed
- Hits: 868
- Visitors: 816
- Downloads: 0