Did you ever try to mail a letter?

I was just thinking about flexibility regarding digital natives and non-natives. And I wondered how flexible the digital natives are compared to non-natives.

I get emails every day from people, some kids, about stuff they can't do on our web site. Either they didn't find a book or they couldn't renew a check-out date for an item or they couldn't find someone to email about their complaints about the things they can't do.

And often my first thought is, but it's right there; it says "find books in our catalog" right there on the front page next to the big image of an octopus holding books and CDs and DVDs in its tentacles (just kidding about the octopus). The page with the link to email me is about five clicks off the main page: how did you find me???

So that example doesn't necessarily target digital natives, but how about when kids see something and immediately google it? Now, I admit that when I'm in a store and I see something on sale, I want to go online and compare prices before I buy it. Or I want to check the reviews on a movie before I purchase the DVD. Back in the old days, I would see the movie in the video store then walk down the mall to the book store and read the review to see if the movie sucked, then walk back to buy the movie if Leonard Maltin said it didn't. When Amazon has a sale on movies, I always check a second or third source online before buying, but what I see kids doing in the library is finding a book and then googling the book to see what they can find about it before they commit to reading it, or even looking through it. Now, the book is right there, in their hands, and they can look at it; when I want to learn about a movie, I can't watch part of it to see if I'd like it (unless it's one of those stores that let's you scan the bar code and see the trailer, but come one, the trailer is just two minutes of all the best parts). But you can open a book and read all you want! If it's natural for digital natives to seek answers (or proofs) online, when does that become an interference?

Look, I'm going to be hard on them. But that's why I'm thinking about flexibility. I wonder how someone responds when her usual solution is unavailable, when the traveled path is blocked. Or when the usual solution is inappropriate for the current situation.

And that's what made me think of how complex it is to simply write and mail a letter.

• You need to find an envelope.
• You need to find a pen that writes.
• You need to remember the zip code.
• You need a stamp.
• You need a mail box. If you're mailing a payment to someone, you probably don't want to leave it in your mailbox all alone and unguarded. So you need to find an official USPS mailbox.
• You need to mail the letter, not the baby.

And if it's so complex to do such a common thing, then why do digital non-natives seem to exhibit such negative emotions regarding technology? When I teach a computer class, the thing I stress is that using a computer and using the Internet is just doing the same 3-5 things over and over and ignoring everything else. When someone says that she gets distracted by all the ads and things on web pages, I ask, "Then how did you get here? Did you drive?" You have a destination when you get in the car. If people behaved (okay, some do) on the road like they do on the Internet, going to any page that looks interesting, when would anyone ever make it to work or home. They would all be parked in front of adult book stores and casinos.

With everything you learn, you build an internal library of information. You scan and sift data intelligently based on that library. You apply metadata to the new information. You become flexible.

That's why I wonder about why technology, particularly computers, causes this rift. Or are we all equally flexible (and inflexible), the natives and non-natives, but with different prejudices? I see digital natives and non-natives having more in common than one might think.

Anyway, I missed the first lecture in this series, the Library of Congress Opens Lecture Series On "Digital Natives," so I hope they post the webcast soon (before I forget that I was interested), so I can hear it.