The Digital Natives – Their Brains are Wired Differently

I enjoyed a fascinating presentation today at the WYSTC conference in Manchester by Technology Futurist Lee Crockett (committedsardines.com) on just how the “digital generation” think. According to Lee there is a whole type of human beings (primarily those under 25 but not necessarily) whose brains are wired differently to ours. These people he refers to as “digital natives” – digital is their first language (as opposed to everyone else where digital is their second language).

Traditional theory on brain development said that an individual’s brain cells were completely developed by the age of three and there after no more could be grown – only destroyed. However, new research has shown that the brain is continually developing and morphing and that by using one subset of your brain over another then those brain nodes will grow stronger and more efficient at the transfer of data and decision making. Crockett says that those growing up in the modern area suffered digital bombardment through the thousands and thousands of hours exposed to television, computer games, and mobile phones. By the time a digital native reaches 21 they will have spent 100,000 hours playing computer games, received and sent 250,000 emails, spent 10,000 hours on a mobile phone and watched 21,000 hours of television. In contrast they would have spent only 9,000 hours in school (most of those un-engaged).

Lee’s presentation covered a lot of ground very quickly but it did raise some really interesting points about the way we communicate with the next generation. One of the most important points is that because of the digital bombardment digital natives are graphical people. Research shows that they can recall as much as 90% of 2,500 images several days after exposure despite only seeing them for a few seconds each. In contrast 72 hours after leaving a lecture only 10% of students could remember the content – add a picture that retention increased to 65%. In fact the eye processes images 60,000 times faster than text according to Crockett. The implications for text heavy websites and brochures are obvious.

Lee showed digital natives read a page quite differently to “normal” (hic) people. Digital natives read pages in an f-like shape virtually ignoring content on the right hand side of the page unless colours catch their attention. Once again the implications for web design are obvious. It is not something we did not know and Lee showed heat maps of how a user might read a web page – however actually hearing this put into physical science was interesting.  The two images on the left show the different reading patterns according to Lee.

Lee listed some key elements which characterise the digital generation which I think are really relevant in thinking about Internet Marketing to the next generation:

• The need for speed in information flow
• The ability to focus on multiple images and multiple strands of information at once
• The randomisation of information processing (known as hyper-linking, digital natives get bored following logical processes)
• The ability to networked simultaneously with many instead of traditional one-on-one communication
• Prefer just in time learning – just tell me the next steps to win or succeed – as opposed to traditional here is loads of information ‘just in case’
• Prefer instant gratification and immediate reward (a video game for example has a major decision at least every second and rewards the player for success every 7 to 9 seconds). This is quite different to the traditional thinking of building and earning a reward over a long time frame
• The ability to funnel out any information that is not relevant or fun

Lee Crockett’s presentation was fast pace and challenging and so far one of the highlights for me at this years WYSTC conference.