Much has been heard about the different generations and their skills with the various Technological toolslike the social networksand even people born after the 80’s are rumored to possessn innate aptitudes to handle the computer. yesHowever, various studies indicate that this is false.
Nielsen Norman Groupthe American interface and user experience consulting firm published an article that debunks three of the myths related to millennials and current generations.
1. “Digital natives have inferior social skills or are more likely to avoid personal interaction in favor of digital interaction”
It is believed that digital natives can become socially stunted if they interact with people primarily through electronic formats such as text messages and social networks, but this is false.
In a recent study of smartphone use, the Pew Research Center discovered that the american young adults they texted more than older adults, but their voice call rates were about the same as older adults. That finding suggests that, at least for this type of interaction, young adults supplement vocal interactions with textual ones, rather than replacing them with some instinctive fear of interacting with a person.
In interviews and usability tests conducted by the Nielsen Norman Groupmany of the young adult participants mentioned that they preferred talk to a human (by phone or in person) to ask for help, especially when they couldn’t figure something out on their own.
2. “Digital natives are much better at multitasking than digital immigrants”
Although millennials are more likely to do multiple tasks that previous generations are not the most efficient multitaskers; however, like any other person, they have consequences when multitasking.
Frequent alternation between tasks increases cognitive load and forces us to reorient ourselves over and over again in each task, point out two studies of human-computer interaction in the University of California, irvine and in the California State University
Psychology researchers like cliff nass have also shown the negative impact of chronic multitasking on efficiency and cognitive performance.
“Multitaskers had a harder time filtering out irrelevant stimuli and took 0.5 seconds longer than multitaskers to refocus their attention when switching between two different types of tasks. ”, they point out.
3. “Digital natives have natural instincts about how to use or repair computers and other digital products”
The generalized final idea about the new generations is that they have innate knowledge or learning ability in relation to digital products. This is true for specific subgroups of Millennials (for example, software engineers), but it is false for the entire generation.
According to a survey that assessed participants’ knowledge of various aspects of the Internet, the Pew Research Center found that young adults outperformed older adults on questions about common conventions of Internet use.
However, the findings also indicated that young adults were no more knowledgeable than older adults about the underlying structure of the web, major technology leaders (such as Bill Gates), or even important concepts such as net neutrality.
“Millennials’ interactions tend to be fast because they spend less time on a given page, but they are more likely to make mistakes and read even less than the average user,” the article concludes. Nielsen Norman Group.
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