Dr. David White introduces the "visitors and residents" principle to describe people's approaches to the web. Past researchers focused on digital immigrants vs. natives and I laughed out loud when the concept was reduced to the phrase "old people just don't understand this stuff." Reminded me of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's anthem, Parents just don't understand. The visitor and resident principle uncouples age from web behavior and can be summarized as:
Visitors "leave no trace" on the web and are characterized by
- No social persona online
- See the web as a "collection of tools"
- Individual
- Private
- Goal-Oriented
On the flip side, residents live online. a form of their identity remains online even when they log off.
- See web as creative space
- Social
- Communal
- Visible
It's important to point out that the visitor and residents are presented as a continuum. For myself, I'm somewhere in between visitor and resident depending on the context. I a heavy user of Facebook in my personal life and I utilized my social media tools for library communication (blogs, wikis, etc.). I maintain some professional presence on the web but it has not been a high priority for me to develop a brand although I look up to many librarians and library leaders, "micro-celebrities" that leverage social media to share ideas, communicate, and contribute to the field. I mostly contribute in the confines of library conference presentations and publishing in library journals. I'm comfortable exploring and learning new technologies for which I see a practical application (goal oriented). I'm not always an early adopter and do not suffer from technolust.
Dr. White says that in order to maintain visible on the web, you have to constantly feed the beast...I'm not ready to make that commitment yet!
