Digital Natives and Immigrants: What Brain Research Tells Us' by Nancy K. Herther

'Digital Natives and Immigrants: What Brain Research Tells Us' is an organized, rhetorical piece by Nancy K. Hethers, explaining the reasons and rationale behind the great divide of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, and sheds light over the effective cognitive development that takes place as a result of stimulating experiences in the light of Neuroscientic evidence and research. The underlying purpose of this article is to shed light over the fact that the brain adapts itself to the challenges and situations that it comes across, and that the brains of the Digital Natives are not more effectively equipped than the brains of the Digital Immigrants. The individuals termed as Digital Immigrants have also proved that they have adequate adaptive abilities to counter the challenges of today as effectively as Digital Natives can. The author addresses the general public as audience, while delivering an insightful research over the workings of the brain, and specifically seeks to refute the arguments of claimants, who believe that Digital Natives are born with specially equipped brains, and the Digital Immigrants stand no chance at competing with them at cognitive levels.

The author claims that the working of a human brain is deeply affected by the technological advances of the current age. Closely administered behavior of Digital Natives reveals that they have sharper cognitive skills as compared to the Digital Immigrants of the previous generation. She begins by quoting Palfrey and Gasser as her counter-argument, who acknowledge the difference between the current and previous generations, thus: “These kids are different. They study, work, write and interact with each other in ways that are very different from the ways that you di...

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...m the claims of cognitive supremacy of Digital Natives by birth, and the lesser tendencies exhibited by the Digital Immigrants. Later in the article, she advances to presenting various cognitive and Neuroscientic studies as refutation to the previously reported claims of Palfrey and Gasser, and Tapscott and Prensky, which may be best concluded in the words of John Medina, who states, “The brain is in the business of reacting to its environment by continuously rewiring itself in response to external experience.” (422) Hence, she proves her point that brain power is not “generationally defined,” rather it increases and adapts to the growing and demanding challenges faced by human cognitive experience.

Works Cited

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 9th ed. London: Longman, 2011. 419-425. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.