Digital natives and Digital immigrants
Carbajo / 16 Giugno 2023

There is a generational gap between people born into the new digital culture (digital natives) and older generations (digital immigrants). An internal document of the Redemptorist Congregation states that their young candidates “have a different kind of experience, another way of conceiving the world, of reflecting, thinking, and working; they use new technologies and new languages. This tension, in many cases, creates two isolated groups”[1]. Digital natives have acquired a new way of expressing themselves and of perceiving reality. When they arrive at consecrated life, they are already accustomed to the use of new technologies and to the communicative dynamics that they generate. The religious community must make an effort to understand how these young people relate to others and face real life. At their side, digital immigrants are trying to learn the new language, but they will “always retain, to some degree, their ‘accent,’ that is, their foot in the past” since they did not learn it in childhood. “They speak an outdated language”[2]. In addition, they often have a dualistic view of the online/offline. For them, online communication is virtual, unreal, ephemeral, fallacious. Therefore, it should be avoided as much as possible, in order to facilitate authentic religious…