In 2001 Marc Pensky proposed the intriguing notion that our culture is now composed of digital natives and digital immigrants. He's now expanded the concept to include digital wisdom (Pensky, 2009). Let's explore the updated concept and its increasing cultural significance.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
We're a social species with a long juvenile development, so it's essential for humans to master how the world works, and especially the body and verbal languages that drive social interaction.

During most of human history, we lived within a natural time/space environment. We innately knew how to explore it, and we were typically curious enough to do it. We didn't have to learn how to walk, grasp, talk, etc. We benefited from mirror neurons, a class of neurons that activate when we execute basic movements (such as grasping and throwing) and also when we merely observe others making such movements. Thus mirror neurons simplify adult non-verbal instruction on how to do things, and so also our ability to learn to speak. Mirror neurons are therefore central to the development of basic movements and to other imitative behaviors (such as our tendency to yawn when we observe another person yawning). Children simply observe what others are doing and automatically join in, principally through socially interactive play and games.