Digital Specialists and Digital Natives Don't Exist

Question: What do Santa Claus, digital specialists, and digital natives have in common?

Answer: Industries that fuel belief in their existence and an audience that is willing to believe, even though the evidence looks shaky once you start scratching below the surface.

Whilst adults have a knowing wink when discussing Santa Claus, the digital specialist and digital native are treated as gospel truths that very few people bother to question the existence of… but we should. And here’s why.

Once upon a time, when webmasters (remember them?) still roamed the primordial cyber world, digital experts did exist in some proto-form. As the landscape was much simpler then, and with a lot less competition, it didn’t take much to become one.

All it took was just a bit more understanding of technology and HTML than the average person, and boom – straight to the top of the food tree you go (I should know – I was there…).

But the world has evolved rapidly since, and the digital ecosystem has become vast and diverse. The result is that digital specialists now no longer exist in that world anymore than Neanderthals do in ours. Instead, they have become the ancestor of entire new branches of specialisation – mobile, search, social media, email marketing, data analytics, etc. – its very own flourishing ecosystem.

The problem is that the digital realm has become so specialised that it’s no longer possible to be an expert across all its domains. Anyone who’s hiring for digital talent will know that it’s difficult enough just to find decent expertise in one digital field, let alone trying to find a Leonardo da Vinci amongst the ranks. And with everything becoming digital (billboards, print ads… even radio), does it even have any meaning?

That brings us to the next myth of the digital native – the appealing notion that there is a generation that has been brought up in this new world, with this new technology, and therefore is naturally attuned to it in ways that no other generation can be.

Whilst it’s true that the younger generation has more of a natural tendency to use technology, any marketer that has done any research with Generation Y or Millennials will know that they have no more intrinsic understanding of the technology than the typical adult (see Google’s “What is a Browser?” video).

The technology is just there and it just works – there is no more desire to understand how or why than any other age group. Most of us are more than happy to consume electricity without knowing how it’s actually generated, or what it even actually is.

And whilst yes, there is a generation that has grown up in a world of Facebook and Twitter and iPhones, research shows that it’s actually the older generations that are leading the charge in taking up new technology.

For instance, the largest age group for Facebook is 35-54 year olds at 29 percent of the user base (istrategylabs.com)

And for smartphone usage, the 25-34 year olds lead with 28 percent, followed closely by the 35-44 year old cohort at 23 percent. The younger 18-24 and 13-17 year old group make up just 17 percent and 7 percent respectively.

This is not to say that the so-called “digital natives” haven’t grown up in a digital world – of course they have! – but we should take with a grain of salt any claims of their built-in ability to understand technology. Like most things, digital affinity is more a state of mind than a factor of age.

So what does this all mean for marketers and marketing? Here are three thoughts:

1) If you are looking to target the younger generation, don’t assume that digital is the key answer. In fact, the truth may be much scarier: that before too long, some form of digital is the only way to reach your entire audience.

2) But it’s also time to really let go of digital as a silo. The industry has been saying that for years, but it seems to be easier said than done. Going further, it may also be time to get rid of the notion of digital at the centre, because it’s as nonsensical as saying the earth is the centre of the universe. The consumer is ultimately at the centre, and we’re all competing for attention – in whatever medium that ends up being.

3) Entire ecosystems – and corporations – have become extinct because of failures to adapt to rapidly changing environmental factors. We are living in a hyperbolic world where the rate of change increases with each passing year… are you still clinging to old beliefs that are no longer true, or will this be your opportunity to find new territory to explore and conquer, away from where everyone else is hunting?