Pasitikėjimas tinklaveika: ką apie tai mãno skaitmeninio pasaulio čiabuviai ir imigrantai?
Authors: Savicka Aida 
Published: December 2024

The development of digital communication technologies have rapidly expanded innovative, more convenient and inexpensive ways of interpersonal communication,
creating completely new spaces of sociability, where the youngest human generation
has settled fastest and feels most comfortable. Why are young people so enthusiastic
about integrating new technologies in their daily lives, using them more intensively
and in a wider variety of activities? One of the possible answers stemming from social
cognitive theory paradigm is quite simple: young people just have greater digital self-efficacy because they see positive role models both in their social environment and in
the media, and have less hesitation in their ability to master new competencies.
In terms of peer-to-peer communication and global networking, this young generation has become so unique that it has even been figuratively called “digital natives”,
distinguishing it from the older generations who – as it is claimed – even after acquiring the necessary skills and competences can only become “digital immigrants”.
Although the term “digital natives” has become quite popular and widely used, this
social phenomenon with far-reaching implications has so far been little studied.
When looking for an answer to a still open question whether age is the principal dividing line between digital natives and digital immigrants, or other attributes (such
as education, material well-being, etc.) can compensate for the sharp differences in
digital experiences, the article focuses primarily on the issue of trust in networking,
because trust is a prerequisite for the successful functioning of any social entity. As
of every social environment, mutual trust is also an important element of digital networking as it encourages communication: users need to assume a certain degree of
risk and to trust others in order to expand their networks, hoping that the potential
harms of networking will be less than its potential benefits. It is worth to discuss
about the twofold relationship between trust and networking experience: on the one
hand, greater trust in networking encourages greater involvement and fearlessness;
on the other hand, networking experience gives useful insights into the processes and,
at the same time, gives more confidence and builds trust. Since people of different
generations have very different experiences of networking, it is likely to lead to differences in trust in networking.
Official statistics show that the level of basic and higher digital competences among
the youth is higher than among older generations; that young people are the most active on the Internet as the majority of them are involved in networking on daily basis;
that among the youngest generation most of the indicators of digital literacy, activities, and privacy threats in the network are not dependent on education, whereas in
other generations education differentiates them significantly; that the greatest differences between generations are related to the spread of social and entertainment activities online, and the differences in the prevalence of instrumental activities among
generations are not so pronounced.
The article raises the question of whether these differences in networking practices also lead to different levels of trust in networking, which, in turn, would further
strengthen the distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants. The analysis
of the latest European Values Study data showed that, of all demographics examined,
only age has a significant independent impact on trust in networking. Meanwhile, the
impact of education and material well-being on trust in networking, controlling the
age of respondents, has not been established. This implies that people aged 16–24 are
rather homogeneous group in terms of Internet usage intensity, digital literacy, social
networking, and trust in networking, so they can be considered as true digital natives.
Although older people, especially those with a higher level of education and material
background, acquire similar or even higher digital competences than young people,
their normal networking behavior is in principle different in nature. The analysis carried out thus confirms the concept of digital natives as an age category.
In order to reduce this intergenerational divide, if not to eliminate it, special attention
should be paid to developing the digital self-efficacy of older people, fostering their
faith in their ability to master digital technologies and to use them effectively in completing their daily tasks. Otherwise, the older generations will be destined to live in
social exclusion and, as more and more services are moving to the digital space, this
gap will only widen.