Digital Dinosaur, Digital Immigrant or Digital Native?

Earlier this month Giam Swiegers, Deloitte Australia’s CEO did a video blog to talk about why CEO’s need social media.

He draws out three classifications on the video. He suggests that anyone who is over 34 and ignoring technology and digital communication can be considered a “Digital Dinosaur”. If you know someone that works with you who falls into this category, good grief! Tell them the name of the category they fall into and see if it’s enough to wake them up to smell the coffee! I like this description though. Dinosaurs became extinct and I do think that those in this category that don’t jump on the digital communications’ band wagon, may find they get left behind and become a specie of the past.

If you’re over 34 but have joined the social media revolution, congratulations! You’re a “Digital Immigrant”. You appreciate social media as a valid modern source of communication at all levels and probably don’t mention your bowel movements on Facebook, don’t say you “don’t have time for that (social media) at work” and collaborate effectively with co-workers.

Then there those of us 34 or under (admittedly written with a grin on my face…I’m so pleased to have escaped being an immigrant!), who were brought up with IT readily available. We are simply “Digital Natives”. We just know that digital media technology is there and use it. I’m not convinced it’s that straightforward but if generalisation is acceptable then I’ll run with this idea.

Giam Swiegers continues to say that social media will be vital for future leaders. He highlights that as a CEO, his job is to execute the company’s strategy. In order to execute the strategy, he must find a way to effectively communicate it out to employees. He looks for the right channels to reach his people and that is now through digital media.

I must confess that since internal collaborative tools were launched at my place of work, I feel so much more “in the know” and dare I say it, engaged (Gallup would go to town with that comment). I have a constant open forum where I can see who is who, ask questions, make contributions and volunteer to assist colleagues widening my network. I have grown from being a name in the company’s directory with a manager’s name next to it, to having a true identity and profile that has my stamp on it. The almost 100,000 strong organisation I work for, whose shape was unknown to me before the times of collaborative tools, has suddenly shrunk and become visible.

Having said all that, we are so far away from having a fully engaged work force. So far away from having everyone on board, sharing information and genuinely reaping the full benefits of social media.