My parents bought our first computer with access to the internet when I was in the 4th grade. From this, I would classify myself as a digital native - digital technology has been available at my fingertips since the inception of each new gadget to hit the market. In the early days of my exposure to the internet, it was mainly used as a tool of communication with my friends through IMs and emails. Also, thanks to my computer class in middle school, I frequently visited a wide variety of educational, and quite a few non-educational, game websites. The internet was primarily used for communication through America Online by my sisters and I as well as my father. My mom, who worked with a computer and the internet every day at work, largely stayed away from our new toy.
My dad, being a technology junkie, also bought cell phones about a year later. From this point, my digital exposure grew exponentially. We started acquiring toys like CD players, which were soon upgraded to iPod's, and new cell phones every other year. Following the patterns set up in our initial digital encounters, my sisters and I were frequent users of the new digital technology while my mother has still yet to own her own cell phone.
Starting in late middle school and moving on throughout my educational career, the internet has been transformed from a medium of entertainment into a medium used mostly for research and communication. I tend to check my email and facebook accounts regularly, occasionally visiting YouTube, but I do not tend to spend hours surfing the web.
