For those who came here for the free pizza, I am sorry but I’ve got something even better below!
Better luck next time 🙂
Welcome back!
Today, I will be discussing about digital “visitors” and “residents” and attempt to classify myself under one of these categories.
You may wonder, what are these terms used for and what do they actually mean? I, too, was unfamiliar with the terminology at the beginning and looked towards google for the answers.
So, this is what I found out;
The terms digital “residents” and ”visitors” were actually introduced by White and Le Cornu(2011) and was used to replace Prensky’s concept of digital “Natives” and “Immigrants” (McKenzie, 2007). The main purpose of the new set of terms was to categorise individuals with regards to their digital footprint while Prensky’s concept looked towards categorising them by age.
Digital “residents”
They are individuals who view the online portal as their immediate environment. As a result, their online signature is strong. These people spend time and effort into creating their online identity and would consistently maintain their profiles. “Residents” view the online platform as an extension of the physical world, thus they would reach out to others through the web to forge relationships and share their opinions actively.
Digital “visitors”
These individuals, on the other hand, are those who treat the web as a means to an end. Often, they look towards the online portal only when they require certain information with a certain task in mind. “Visitors” do not consider the virtual world as a platform to share their ideas and opinions. They also do not have an online profile as they do not place value in belonging online.
With that said, this concept actually explores the idea of an individual’s digital footprint and also the idea of polarity between digital “residents” and “visitors”. Another interesting point is that an individual can fall into two of these categories, thus it also shows the possibility of non-mutual exclusivity between the two classes.
To better understand this concept, let’s watch a video.
Visitor and Residents Mapping Process
I took the liberty to conduct a Visitors and Residents mind map based on my own experiences and the results are as such.
I know, I know. It is pretty messy. 
Based on my results, it is pretty clear that I would fall under the category of a digital “resident”. However, there are still certain things that I do that will cause the distinction to be less clear. Most of my online activities are more personal than institutional. For example, my online presence in the Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook society are almost purely of a personal nature. Towards the end of my course, I would wish to see a more significant shift of my digital footprint from the personal category towards the institutional category. In order for me to accomplish this, I would have to monitor my online activities and be more aware of the various trends in my field.
References
Prensky, M. (2012)‘From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom: Hopeful essays for 21st century learning’, London, SAGE Publications.
White, D., and Le Cornu, A,L. (2011)‘Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement’. First Monday, 16 (9), [Online] Available at: http://firstmonday.org/article/view/3171/3049 [Accessed: 27 November 2014]
White, D. (2008). Not ‘Natives’ & ‘Immigrants’ but ‘Visitors’ & ‘Residents’. [Blog] Tall Blog. Available at:http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2008/07/23/not-natives-immigrants-but-visitors-residents/ %5BAccessed 27 Nov. 2014].
White, D. (2013). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].
White, D. (2013). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSK1Iw1XtwQ [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].
Life as I see it. 
Hi Evan,
great job with the distinction of Digital Visitor and Digital Residents and I like how you share your personal experience quite clearly with us with the mind map. Do you think under the area of Institutional Resident, we could include ‘online search’ too? Because I believe we often do searches online for learning purposes?
Personally, I feel I also fall heavily at the area Personal Resident. I am guilty of being more active on social networking sites that are more personal than institutional. In your opinion, do you think we should have a balance of personal and institutional in the online space or should we focus more on institutional aspect to aid in our future employability?
Hope to get your reply soon 🙂
Cheers,
Evelina
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Hi Evan, kudos to you on this interesting post! First and foremost, I like how you started off the topic with an essence of humor in it, that is something I need improvement in. Maybe I should use money in the future to attract people into clicking my link too.. (Inserts laughter) Jokes aside, I thought it was amazing to come up with your own mapping based on your past experiences on websites and social media platforms. Similarly, I do fall in the category of ‘Digital Resident’ as I owned the commonly used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc to share my personal views and lifestyles to my friends. But what dawned upon me was that you mentioned about how all these are personal rather than institutional, which made me questioned myself on what I should do too to achieve that. Therefore, I hope that we will gradually move into the latter as we go along in this module!
Overall, I thought it was an engaging post which kept my short attention span going, I definitely took away some insightful information and I look forward to hear from you soon.
Cheers x
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Hi Angie! Thank you for taking time to read my post. I’m really glad that I helped in your understanding of the topic! 🙂
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Hi Evan!
I followed the smell of free pizza all the way here to realised this was a scam! But anyway, I enjoyed reading your post! Thanks for the effort in presenting digital visitors and digital residents in a clear way. You’re not alone, in fact I guess many of us fall under the category of digital resident, yet most of our activities are more personal than institutional. Your post made me reflect on how I actually manage my social media accounts. I am sure that there would be a significant shift in our digital footprint to fall under the category of institutional instead of personal as our understanding develops throughout this module. Thanks for your post, which also reminded me that I should take my first step in creating Linkedln. Keep up the good job! I will be back for more pizzas 😀
Regards,
Rachel
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Hi Rachel!
Sorry about that! I will make it up to you in school! It is great to know that I am not alone in this and I am glad to be of some help in your learning journey.
Hope to hear more from you!
Regards,
Evan
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Hey Eve!
Your point is extremely valid! Online searches can also be placed closer towards that of a institutional nature too. In my case, more often than not, I conduct online searches for information that is of a personal nature, thus it leans more towards the personal section.
With respect to your second point, I believe that we should aim to have a balance between the personal and institutional sections as opposed to leaning more towards the institutional aspect. Throughout our job-searching journey in the future, our resumes are often the first contact point between us and our potential employers. As such, our employers will be aware of our accomplishments and skillsets. Employers commonly explore their potential employee’s digital signature online to learn more about their personality and their web reputation. As such, if we were to focus too much on building our professional portfolio instead of striving to achieve a balance between the two aspects, it would be counter-productive and even detrimental to us as our potential employers will not be able to know us as an individual. In turn, not being able to see if we would make a good fit to their corporation.
I hope that I have addressed all your questions. Thank you for helping me gain more insight about the topic through your questions.
Looking forward to more comments from you in the future 😀
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